Thin plastic protective barriers – or sneeze guards – are now at places like grocery stores, Island Health hospitals, on BC Transit buses, and soon to be schools.
So it may be no surprise that at Industrial Plastics and Paint in Victoria, plexiglass, has been flying off the shelves.
“We’re selling it faster than we can get it,” said Ron Sherring, general manager at Victoria’s Industrial Plastics and Paint
“Just everybody is in need of the products we sell right now.”
From thinking they’d barely be able to keep their doors open, to this unexpected, unprecedented, demand, the Vancouver Island company is experiencing whiplash.
“The sneeze guards and all that have been a new experience, because maybe we had one order a year, but now we have 10 a day there,” said Mark MacNaughten, a fabricator at Victoria’s Industrial Plastics and Paint.
The plexiglass industry has suddenly become hot, and it’s only getting hotter.
The province is mandating businesses looking to reopen, must have plastic barriers.
“I’m a little nervous about it actually. We’re working to capacity now, and I think it’s going to explode once they decide to open up some businesses,” said Sherring.
The only difficulty now is producing it fast enough. Companies that make plexiglass or like materials are already ramping things up. But with demand spiking globally, there may be some delays to Island businesses.
“We’re anticipating a lot more than what we can handle, but we’ll do our best. People will just have to be patient,” said Sherring.
Kori Sidaway
