Kalas statement on Covid-19 impact on custom production.

As a family-owned company we care deeply about the health and wellbeing of all our employees, at our factory and head office in the Czech Republic, and our distributors and local offices all around the world. We have taken essential measures to protect our people and try as best we can to provide an uninterrupted service to our valued customers. 

As of this moment, we are operating at approximately 80% of our normal capacity. With Czech schools closed some of our factory workers need to remain home. For those continuing to work we have provided additional safety measures inside the workplace to minimise the risk of transmitting the virus. We have split our factory workers into two shifts in order to protect against the potential spread of any infection. The early shift operates from 05:30 to 13:30. There is then a one-hour break before the late shift commences from 14:30 to 22:00. The majority of office staff are now workingfrom home for an indefinite period. 

We were recently asked to respond to an urgent request to produce essential items for local emergency services and key workers in our home region. Consequently, we needed to suspend normal production and temporarily focus solely on that. We produced almost 10,000 cotton face masks in just three days. As a direct result some custom orders will be delayed approximately one week from their original estimated despatch date. Alongside our regular production of cycle wear we continue to manufacture personal protective equipment including gowns, hair nets and face masks for local hospitals and care homes. Of course, we apologise to customers who may experience a slight delay to the delivery of their order, but hope you understand the reasons in unprecedented times. 

Amongst all the uncertainty we will endeavour to keep customers informed about any changes in the delivery of custom orders already in production and our anticipated despatch times on any new custom orders. New orders received are currently anticipated to be despatched in approximately 7 weeks. This should return to a more normal 4-5 weeks shortly after the Easter period. We appreciate while many key workers are flat out others may have been furloughed and have some unexpected downtime. Now might be a good opportunity to get creative and think about updating your club or team design, or maybe have some fun creating a new design for a group of friends and an event you plan to do when the lockdown is lifted. 

In the meantime our Eshop of stock items remains well-stocked with our collections and replicas. For further information on individual orders please contact your local Kalas representative who will be keen to assist. 

Going forwards then, in this period of lockdown and isolation, we believe it's important to keep spirits high and stay active. We have stepped-up our online content, with more blogs for you to read and videos to watch, and we are organising more virtual rides and races via Zwift where together we can all Ride On. Details are regularly published on our social media and in newsletters. 

We thank all customers for their continued support and we wish you all good health.    Kalas Sportswear