Yorkton company switches gears to meet demand for toilet paper and hand sanitizer

With many businesses forced to close under new restrictions from the Saskatchewan government, some have managed to switch gears completely to keep running.

Chris Lech with Denson Commercial Food Equipment in Yorkton said the company has shifted from supplying food equipment to hotels and restaurants to filling a void to provide things like hand sanitizer and toilet paper to essential services.

“It was our 30th anniversary almost to the day and we woke up and our hospitality clients had disappeared with the shutdown,” Lech said in a phone interview with 980 CJME.

“So we had to make a hard pivot to serve our essential services clients, which includes everybody from the health-care industry to correctional services to Hutterite colonies (and) First Nations — there’s a really broad swath of customers that rely on the services that we provide.”

Lech is grateful for the opportunity to hold on to the employees who have been with the company for so long.

“Times are extraordinarily difficult and it’s very hard to turn your business all around in one night. You’ve got about five minutes to pout and then you’d better just get at it, so that’s what we did,” he explained.

Lech noted the response from a whole new client base has been overwhelming and the company is working hard to keep up with a new level of demand, with calls coming from medical centres, corrections facilities and communities across the country.

“At the end of the day, it becomes a real partnership in the supply chain where you can only yell and scream so much but they can do what they can do and you can do what you can do so you really just have to work together and do what you can do to fulfil orders,” Lech.

He sees the shift in business as a way for the company to do its small part to keep essential services running.