Marine engineering firm SMS Group has stressed it is continuing to operate during the coronavirus pandemic because it is playing an integral role in helping to keep Britain trading and staying safe.
The Southampton-headquartered company is supporting maritime infrastructure, crucial freight operators and the nation's defence sector.
SMS group has engineering workshops in Poole, Avonmouth, Portsmouth, Dover and at Devonport in Plymouth, where it works with defence giant Babcock International Group Plc.
Nicholas Warren, commercial director of the SMS Group, said: "From our sites we support the likes of the Royal Navy, via Babcock and BAE Systems, UK Border Force, Trinity House and various inter-island freight operators as well as numerous ports, harbours and tug/towage operations.
"We're a small, but important part of the country's maritime infrastructure and, as Island nation, we must keep trading."
He added: "We've just this week docked a UK Border Force vessel in Lowestoft, provisioned support to aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, and completed two emergency call-outs for two differing tug operators.
"We've also supported the vital inter-island ferry operators that help serve both the communities of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight.
"It's key that we follow Government advice, take all precautions, keep colleagues and customers safe, and develop our own business processes, and then of course carry on."
In Plymouth, Babcock International Group sent some of its 5,500-strong workforce home but stressed employees engaged in vital defence work are still in action at Devonport Dockyard.
The company said it has been in key talks with the Government to ensure critical defence contracts don’t get hampered by the coronavirus outbreak.
It means staff engaged on essential project, including maintaining nuclear submarines, are still at their posts at the yard.
But the company stressed it is working with unions to ensure staff remain safe during the COVID-19 contagion.
Meanwhile, SMS has also established a small, focused team, to provision mobile sanitation services to key customers with ship-side and shore-side assets that are in need of either one-off sanitation pre-recommencement of service, or routine sanitation whilst in service or in refit.
Mr Warren said: "Our 'fogging' solution allows the operatives, working in two-man teams, to safely and quickly sanitise all the spaces on vessels that have historically proven difficult to do so by conventional methods.
"We can 'fog' machinery spaces, voids and bilges, small cabins, stair wells and both crew and passenger spaces with ease.
"This service is offered on a one-off, or scheduled basis. Our intent is to sanitise any given area against Covid-19, and at the same time ensure that passengers, crew and/or shipyard workers are aware of these higher standards of routine sanitisation.”
