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Williams & White steps up with made-in-Canada COVID-19 PPE

B.C. manufacturer of saw filing equipment, Williams & White, has stepped up to the pandemic plate when it comes to pivoting its manufacturing for COVID-19 protection.

Responding to the call for Canadian companies to pump out personal protective equipment and other health and safety products, Williams & White was out of the gate early with the production of clear protective barriers for local grocery stores in the Vancouver area.

“My brother and I were thinking, ‘Holy crow there are a lot of front line workers struggling and they need barriers,’” says CEO Justin William, who runs the company with brother Matt.

The barriers were installed in four Save On Foods grocery stores in late March.

The success of the project led the Williams & White team to brainstorm other ways they could provide safety equipment. They’re next step was to design and manufacture face shields.

Despite launching just weeks ago, the company has already sold roughly 4,000 face shields to various manufacturers and institutions.

With forest products companies listed as essential businesses across Canada and many continuing to operate, they are an ideal market for these face shields, Williams says.

Williams & White’s latest product to launch is a hand sanitizer. The company partnered with a retooled fertilizer producer to launch a bulk hand sanitizer for the market.

“You can never do it as one company – you need partners,” Williams says. “We’re just mobilizing our whole supply chain; finding anyone in our supply chain that is doing anything unique. We’re listening to ideas about things that are needed – and putting our engineers, our supply chain, our purchasing partners on it.”

Find all of Williams & White’s health products at www.williamsandwhitehealth.com/