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Marshall closes UK factory as precaution against COVID-19
The facility is expected to reopen on 23 November.
Image: Richard Keith Wolff / Photoshot / Getty Images
UPDATE (13/11): Marshall has responded with a statement, which you can read below.
Marshall Amplification is temporarily closing its UK factory and headquarters as a “precautionary measure” against COVID-19.
According to an email sent by Marshall and then obtained by Guitar.com, the company decided to close its Bletchley, Milton Keynes facility yesterday (11 November) due to “an increase in the number of potential Coronavirus cases within our workforce”. The factory is expected to reopen on 23 November.
“The company are taking this action as purely a precautionary measure,” read the email, which was forwarded to Guitar.com by a source in Vietnam. “We will have skeleton staff working from home during this period.”
Marshall has responded to our requests with a statement, reaffirming that this is a precautionary measure.
“We are proud that our staff have followed company guidelines and stayed offsite from the moment they or someone in their domestic bubble showed any signs of COVID-19 symptoms,” the company said.
“We have an excellent Human Resources team who have kept in contact with all staff affected, but on Wednesday the Company Directors felt it was sensible to implement our own ‘circuit breaker’ until Monday 23 November as a precautionary measure.”
Marshall Managing Director Jon Ellery said, “There is only a small number of staff affected either directly or within their domestic bubble. However given we can’t identify if an affected staff member took a couple of days to develop symptoms after being exposed initially, this circuit breaker will offer that extra assurance.”
As COVID-19 continues to ravage the music industry around the world, there have been a few recent glimmers of hope.
Two weeks ago, Shanghai played host to Music China 2020, a sprawling musical instruments trade show. More than 80,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors from 15 countries flocked to the Shanghai New International Expo Center – albeit with significant safety guidelines in place.
“Every person who attends the show, no matter exhibitors or visitors, are required to show their health code and swipe their ID card to enter the exhibition centre,” Music China’s Project Assistant Sylvia Xue told Guitar.com.
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