Medicine supply has taken a hit.

The government is taking the flak for not ensuring sufficient supply of PPE kits to health workers.

Retail chains are scrambling all over the place to keeping their stores stocked with products.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an emergency situation that Britons haven’t seen since World War II.

Businesses across the board have witnessed their stocks run out, supply chains halt, and waiting lines for inventory grow longer. The supply side of the world economy is in total shambles. Not in the least because there aren’t enough manufacturers and suppliers with enough products to ship. All of this is because of the new restrictions – local and global – on the movement of goods that have ground the world’s logistics to a halt.

Although no one could have seen this coming, at Diamond Bedding we had practices in place to ensure we were prepared for the worst.

Duvet shortages in the making

We, at Diamond Bedding, were quick and proactive to respond to the ‘pandemic challenge’.

As a business, we keep ourselves aware of the new challenges emerging in our industry within the UK and beyond. So, when it became clear that a new virus was spreading rapidly across China in December last year, it was clear that it wouldn’t be long before the virus made its way into other countries, especially the European nations from where we source our products.

We acted quickly and initiated the process to obtain a year’s worth of inventory. By early February, we had enough stock for one more year, ready to be shipped out to customers ensuring there was no  disruption to our delivery system.

The best decision ever!

As the virus raged across the UK, retail stores shut, transportation was severely hit, and the supply chains of every industry slowed down to a snail’s pace. Naturally, one by one, every major retail store and chain started witnessing a shortage of inventory.

The bedding segment took a major hit for two reasons. Firstly, most of the big retail chains rely heavily on manufacturers in Asian countries like China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. As those countries implemented severe restrictions on people movement and manufacturing, the supply chains originating from those countries dried up.

Britons had a decent winter and were well-equipped with warm, cosy, and nice duvets. But, as the summer beckoned, many of them did not have enough summer duvets to help them. With the retail stores running out of bedding products, the choice was between boiling under a heavy-duty winter duvet, or use their old, worn-out summer duvets.

Thankfully, Diamond Bedding was able to offer a better option with a near unlimited supply of lightweight goose down duvets for the summer and higher tog duvets for the winter.

Unlike most retail stores out there, Diamond Bedding had enough inventory of bedding products to keep the supply moving. Very soon, we were receiving record orders from every corner of the world. Our UK sales hit record new highs for multiple months. The disruption caused by the pandemic had begun to show in the lives of all people, everywhere.

In a time where things seemed to be falling apart, it was comforting to be able to continue to provide a service to help our customers feel a sense of normalcy when it was needed most. Staff at Diamond Bedding worked overtime to ensure parcels were packed and delivered on time and enquiries were answered as soon as possible. Gratitude from customers did not go unnoticed as we received endless feedback expressing appreciation for getting products to customers on time, in amongst the chaos caused by the pandemic. Meanwhile, also working to implement proper precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

Burning the midnight oil

As the pandemic raged on, our order volumes, especially for goose down duvets, hit the roof.

Month after month, our numbers were growing, but our infrastructure and resources couldn’t be expanded overnight. As people placed orders on our website from around the world, we began to receive panicked queries from customers later and later into the night.

We employed staff to reply to customer queries well into the night, although most retailers, even online stores, typically offer customer support only during the working hours.

Most of the queries we received were similar – a worried customer wondering whether we ship to his or her country and if we did, when would the product reach them. We always assured them that we ship globally and that our product will reach them as promised.

Handling a massive spike in orders was an enormous challenge on its own and everyone at Diamond Bedding went above and beyond to ensure that our customers got their orders delivered on time, every time.

This is what makes us tick

At Diamond Bedding, it has become a tradition now – every Friday, all of our staff join together and read all the messages and feedback we receive from our happy clients, from the UK to Australia to Singapore.

This is what it is all about – trying to bring a sense of ‘normal’ to people when they need us the most.

And, we thank you all – customers old and new of Diamond Bedding – for your continued support.