Winnipeg, Manitoba — Boyd Group Services confirmed in a Friday press release that the company has experienced significant COVID-19 reductions in demand, and now estimates demand to be down in the range of 40 to 50 percent from normal levels.
“While we cannot yet draw conclusions about the duration of this lower demand, the Company is responding by immediately beginning to implement temporary staffing reductions, which will take place over the next few weeks,” said Boyd. “To the extent that demand changes, either positively or negatively, staffing levels will be adjusted accordingly.”
Tim O’Day, president and CEO for Boyd, confirmed that the company has initiated temporary layoffs amid slowdowns.
“These temporary layoffs are not expected to impact service levels, and they will help to preserve liquidity in this uncertain time period as well as assist in the more rapid recovery of our business,” said O’Day. “Although there will be near term pain, with our strong balance sheet, including cash balances of $575 million, and our ability to adjust expenses and capital spend, we are confident that we will ride out the COVID-19 storm and come out the other end of it preserving, and possibly even strengthening, our position as a strong industry leader.”
Boyd has been included in Ontario’s list of essential workplaces, and has been identified as critical infrastructure by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States.
All of Boyd’s locations remain open at this time; however, certain locations may be closed in the future to comply with local mandatory government orders or to address decreased customer demand.
Out of an abundance of caution, Boyd says it has fully drawn on available financing facilities, other than swing lines of US$40 million and an accordion feature of US$275 million, providing significant available cash liquidity of approximately CDN$575 million.
Additionally, as was previously disclosed, the Company will continue to pursue accretive growth through a combination of organic growth as well as acquisitions and new store development, the immediate focus is on preserving financial flexibility as we deal with the uncertain impacts of COVID-19 and Boyd is therefore taking a near-term pause on closing and funding acquisitions and all non-essential capital expenditures.
Boyd says these measures, and other steps already taken or available position the company well to weather the uncertain impact of the economic fall-out of COVID -19.
In order to address the health and safety of the workforce and broader community, Boyd says it has implemented measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 both at its operating locations as well as within its support services. These include stringent operating practices to ensure cleanliness and distancing and overall employee and customer safety, work from home protocols wherever possible, halting all non-essential travel, halting all cross-border travel, and following established guidelines in the event an infected employee is identified.
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