A force for good in communities. Now more than ever as we all respond to COVID-19.

Since the first cases of COVID-19 across the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, we’ve all faced unprecedented times. As a business, as brands, and as individuals.

Responding in times of local or national crisis isn’t something new for us, nor is helping vulnerable communities – it’s an everyday part of our Community Impact work across the region. However, what has been different with the outbreak of coronavirus, has been the scale, speed and agility of support needed.

Our work as P&G to support COVID-19 relief efforts have been ongoing behind the scenes at a Global, European and Country level across our markets. Here in Northern Europe, from day one, the focus has been on acting, and acting quickly: channelling our resources, efforts and funds to provide grassroot support at mass scale. We have upscaled support with partners that help us help the many, as well as building new partnerships to provide critical support to frontline healthcare workers.

Our efforts are focused in three areas:

1. Providing the comforts of home through our products
2. Utilising our innovation agility through our people
3. Supporting charities and organisations through our business and brands

Over the recent weeks here in Northern Europe, we’ve provided financial support to organisations, donated hundreds of thousands of products to help charities and communities in need, and continued to use the power of our brands to serve and help the public through these times.

Providing the comforts of home through our products

Here in the UK we have a longstanding partnership with In Kind Direct, the UK’s leading product redistribution charity. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, we have scaled up our donations and provided financial support to help their relief efforts and ensure vital everyday essentials are reaching those that need them most. So far, over 142,000 P&G products from Fairy washing up liquid to Always pads, Flash cleaners to Pampers nappies have already been donated, with more to come.

This is just one example. Our brands and employees at sites around the region are involved in multiple local efforts to support getting our products into the hands of those that need them most.

Beyond products, we know our brands also have an important external voice and have been stepping up to adapt and create helpful content for the public at this time – be that a digital campaign by Pampers with tips on how to entertain children at home, or suggestions on how to “bring nature in” from Herbal Essences at a time when outdoors activities are limited.

Utilising our innovation agility through our people

Our plant teams across the globe have harnessed their innovation capabilities and begun manufacturing hand sanitiser. This includes production here in the UK, at our Reading Gillette Plant.

Manufactured to the WHO Formula 1, we have been able to use this hand sanitiser to keep those P&G employees classified as essential workers safe, but also support others through critically needed donations. To date we have donated over 6,000 litres in the UK and Sweden with plans to donate in Ireland shortly.

This equates to enabling over 2 million hand washes, with donor recipients including the British and Swedish Red Cross, In Kind Direct and FareShare UK.

Supporting charities and organisations through our business and brands

At a time when charities and community organisations are under tremendous strain, we have also provided much needed financial support to national and local partners.

In the UK, donations to the British Red Cross, In Kind Direct and a number of organisations local to all our sites has so far totalled almost half a million pounds. This continues to grow and is one element of the support we are providing.

In addition to product donations, our brands have also been forming routes of support to frontline healthcare workers. Since the outbreak of coronavirus in the UK, Gillette has been donating razors to frontline NHS workers being asked to shave to allow closer fit of respiratory masks; Always and Tampax are donating over 726,000 products to frontline workers at NHS Nightingale hospitals (London, Bristol and Birmingham) and our Fabric Care brands have donated 3,000 packs of laundry powder to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Children's Charity to help their increased staff teams to wash their uniforms at home.

These are just a few examples of the small ways we have stepped up to continue to be as a force for good within communities across Northern Europe so far.

Further updates on our COVID-19 response work will be shared via our General Manager, Tom Moody’s LinkedIn and on social media @PGUK.