Covid-19 Statement

The nation’s favourite shortbread makers are back at work.

Walker’s restarted production on Monday 20 April, which has been met with overwhelming support from our staff.

We had made the decision in March to close down Walker’s production temporarily in order to review the Covid-19 situation and its safety implications for our employees. Many of our competitors did not cease operations.

We spent the subsequent downtime reinforcing and improving our existing health and safety measures across all areas of our business to ensure best practice during Coronavirus.

Given these changes, we reopened the Walker’s bakeries on Monday 20th April, albeit initially in a limited capacity.

Staff returning to our bakeries found strict social distancing in place, with a controlled flow of employees both to and from the sites as well as throughout the bakeries themselves. A broad range of enhanced hygiene facilities have been installed including multiple hand sanitising units, reorganised communal areas such as canteens and locker rooms in addition to Perspex screens to separate workers on production lines.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stated on 24th March that food manufacturers, whose production-line staff cannot work from home, could continue to operate as long as they upheld the highest health and safety measures. We vowed to do that and will continue to do so, regularly monitoring and working to ensure adherence to best practice.

We all know that the public has been flocking to supermarkets in numbers which have never been seen before, and with many borders closed it is up to British food manufacturers to keep the nation fed.

We promise our workers that we are keeping their health, safety and well being at the forefront of our minds and we promise the nation that your favourite shortbread will continue to be available.