Family-Run Firm Helping Make Life-Saving Ventilators

Dalau, a family-run firm, is providing plastics to more than 20 companies to make equipment to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Based in Ford Road, Clacton, Dalau was launched in a garage in 1955 after brothers David and Laurence Sage recognised the opportunity presented by synthetic plastic PTFE, then a relatively new material.

The firm now sells to companies across the world and last year invested £1.6 million in state-of-the-art machinery to create plastics for the aerospace, medical, electronic, engineering and automotive industries.

Managing director David Sage, son of founder David, said the firm has seen a surge in demand for materials from companies making ventilators and developing vaccines.

Mr Sage said: “The demand has hit all our products and this means all departments are busy from incoming goods to production and dispatch.

“We are now working with our suppliers to make sure they have enough materials to meet the increased demand.

“The supply chain to the NHS for essential equipment is extremely important. If one supplier fails to deliver, the chain is broken.

“Our staff are a steadfast, committed group and I thank them all for their efforts.”

Mr Sage said the company has set up a COVID-19 team which is trying to deal with Government guidelines, staff concerns and anxieties.

“We appreciate the concerns and worries of our staff and we are doing our best to protect them,” he said.

“We have sent home the most vulnerable and staff who can work from home.

“At the same time we are trying to source sanitiser, gloves, wipes and masks to reduce the risk to us all while trying maintain production and meet the ever-increasing demand from more than 20 major multinational customers who manufacture ventilators, blood analysis machines, vaccine development companies, who are specifically targeting Covid-19, intensive care equipment makers, laboratory equipment suppliers and more.”