Bregal’s response to Covid-19
The global Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented human tragedy, which has impacted the personal and professional lives of individuals, families and communities across the globe.
It has been our absolute priority to support our portfolio companies and the communities in which they operate, whilst also ensuring the health and wellbeing of our own colleagues. From the start of the pandemic there has been a strong consensus and determination across Bregal to find a meaningful way to support the pandemic relief efforts.
Therefore, we launched the Bregal Helps Initiative. All senior Bregal employees in partnership with the COFRA Foundation raised a €3 million relief fund with the mission to assist Bregal portfolio company efforts to alleviate a human crisis and to support local communities with targeted charitable donations to those impacted by Covid-19.
Proactive employee support to relief efforts
Alongside our external commitments, many of our employees took proactive action in supporting Covid-19 relief efforts and have already raised over €260,000. In addition to our regular charitable matching programmes, employees also actively participated in Covid-19 specific initiatives. For example, in partnership with the COFRA Foundation, a matching programme to support Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) was established, helping to raise over €80,000.
Engagement across the portfolio
Since the beginning of the crisis we have monitored employment measures taken by our portfolio companies to minimise negative impacts and to ensure best safety practices. We assessed that in the peak of the Covid-19 lockdowns, approximately 3% of employees were affected by redundancies. All short-term and furloughed workers were compensated via government schemes, resulting in minimal wage losses. Where feasible our portfolio companies have also taken a proactive approach to supporting pandemic relief efforts, such as Onlineprinters starting production of non-medical physical protection headwear, and our healthcare provider, DPG, offering free apartments to clinics as quarantine stations in Aachen, Germany.
Adapting internal ways of working
Ensuring the health and wellbeing of our own employees at Bregal has been our top priority. All employees were asked to work remotely, and we are making sure that our teams continue to work effectively and safely throughout this period. Recognising the importance of mental health, all teams have been provided with access to relevant guidance and resources, including a health and wellbeing committee set up by employees.
