B&Q reopens half its stores as car makers and house builders return to work

Linda J. Dodson

B&Q has reopened about half of its 300 stores following a successful test run over the weekend with new safety measures in place.

The DIY chain closed its doors at the end of March when a lockdown was imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, despite hardware shops being included on the government’s list of essential retailers permitted to keep trading.

B&Q has introduced social distancing controls, such as capping the number of customers in-store, placing 6ft separation markers on the floor and screens to protect cashiers.

It comes as other firms including Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and Taylor Wimpey said they would return to work in May.

JLR, Britain’s biggest car maker and which earlier this week said it was furloughing  20,000 staff, said it aims to “gradually” resume production from May 18,  starting with its Solihull car plant and Wolverhampton engine factory, along with operations in Slovakia and Austria. 

Restart dates for the Castle Bromwich and Halewood plants will come “in due course”, the company said. “The health and well-being of our employees is our first priority. We are developing robust protocol and guidelines to support a safe return to work.

“We will adopt strict social distancing measures across our business and are currently evaluating a number of different measures to ensure we protect and reassure our workforce when they begin to return to work.”

JLR’s plant in Changshu, China, restarted production in February and the company said it is “beginning to see recovery in vehicle sales and customers are returning to showrooms” in the country.

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