COVID: A Year Later and the Three Priorities That Have Guided P&G

A Message from David Taylor, Executive Chairman

A year ago, I shared a message about the immediate actions P&G was taking to step up and serve in the face of the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

On the anniversary of that message, I want to provide an update on the actions we’re continuing to take to step up and step forward as a force for good and force for growth in this ongoing time of need.

These are the priorities we established to carry us through the pandemic:

Protect the health and well-being of P&G people;
Maximize the availability of our products that help people and their families with their health, hygiene and cleaning needs, which have never been greater;
Support the communities, relief agencies and people on the front lines of this global pandemic.

These priorities have ensured that P&G is there for the employees, consumers and communities who have always been there for us, and given the uncertainty we still face globally, these priorities matter as much now as they did a year ago.

Our first priority is always the safety of P&G people.

With more than 12 months of experience around the world, we know that basic safety protocols — wearing masks, practicing distancing, proper hand-washing, regular sanitization — work. Doing these things consistently matters, and we continue to rely on our proven protocols for safety. Any decisions to reduce or alter these practices will be based on local transmission rates as well as guidance from medical authorities and local governments.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been critical to operating safely. In the early months of the pandemic, we rapidly built the capability to make our own PPE to protect P&G people and donate to communities, health facilities and frontline workers.

We stood up mask lines, hand sanitizer lines and disinfectant lines around the world. We made face shields to donate to hospitals, and we even partnered to make an affordable, portable ventilator to help with the ventilator shortage around the world. Over the course of the past year, we’ve donated millions of masks, hundreds of thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer and over one hundred thousand face masks.

As we look ahead, vaccines are the next step. In fact, I received my first dose of the vaccine a couple of weeks ago when it was my turn in Ohio. I strongly encourage everyone to get one of the vaccines when you have the opportunity. With broad adoption, vaccines can help improve and eventually end the pandemic.

Our second priority is serving consumers and customers.

We continue to do our part to help people and their families with their cleaning, health and hygiene needs. P&G products play an essential role in helping people maintain proper hygiene, personal health and healthy home environments.

I am proud of the way P&G people and our business partners have come together to maintain the production, distribution and availability of our brands despite dealing with disruptions from mobility issues, supply interruption, and local mandates, among other things.

P&G people are performing at high levels in difficult and extremely demanding circumstances, requiring significant amounts of agility, flexibility, perseverance and commitment in order to meet the needs of consumers and customers, and P&G people are stepping up daily.

Importantly, our retail partners have recognized our efforts. P&G was ranked number one in performance for the 6th consecutive year by our retail partners in the recently released Advantage report.

Our third priority is supporting our communities.

Over the last year, we donated significant amounts of products, cash, and PPE to families and communities around the world through relief partners such as International Federation of the Red Cross, Feeding America, and Matthew 25: Ministries, among many others. We’ve also created and supported public service campaigns to encourage hand sanitizing, social distancing, and mask wearing. And we’ve used our voice in advertising and media to help create benefit programs with broadcasters to raise money to support communities worldwide.

There are many terrific stories of P&G people stepping up. One of my favorites is how P&Gers at our Gattatico plant in Italy volunteered to keep production lines running for an additional four-hour shift to produce 45,000 bottles of Mr. Proper, donating them to more than 70 hospitals throughout the country. There are many more stories like this you can read about on https://us.pg.com/covid19/.

Looking ahead, we’ve already identified additional ways we can help with even more donations and citizenship actions as part of our “Lead with Love” program where we’re committing to 2,021 acts of good in 2021. It’s a call to action to make this year one where we all come together to do more and do better, for our communities, for each other and for our planet.

P&G is a force for good and a force for growth.

I could not be more grateful and proud for how P&G people have handled this crisis around the world. P&G people are consistently taking action to be a force for good for society. They are also a force for growth, delivering business results, which are essential to having the means to help others on a sustained basis.

I’ll end this post much as I did a year ago—we cannot predict how and when this crisis will end but we’re committed to continue to be part of the solution. We have mobilized the full capabilities of P&G and our partners to help out in this time of need, and we will be there for our employees, consumers and communities—stepping up and stepping forward as a force for good and a force for growth—however long it takes.

Thank you and please stay safe.

David

STEPPING UP AS A FORCE FOR GOOD

April 17, 2020

As a company that’s 183 years old, we have a long history of supporting employees, consumers and communities in times of need. These are our priorities right now: protecting P&G employees, serving consumers in a time of unprecedented demand, and supporting communities on the front lines.

Our first priority in this crisis is to ensure the health and safety of the men and women we work with - our colleagues - around the world. With guidance from medical professionals, we’re constantly evaluating and updating the robust measures already in place to help our people stay safe at work, regardless of whether they are working at home or making, packing and shipping P&G products at our sites. This includes temperature scans, shift rotations, queueing avoidance, and physical distancing. We’re performing comprehensive, methodical cleaning of all production areas, including regular sanitization and surface disinfection that exceeds the most rigorous health authority standards. We’re also equipping and encouraging all employees to make smart, appropriate choices, such as staying at home if they feel unwell, are part of high-risk groups, or have pre-existing medical conditions. In all cases, we partner with our colleagues individually and proactively to ensure they feel - and are - protected and safe. Our industry-leading benefits plans play a critical role in providing P&G people with the resources they need to care for themselves and their families. From paid leave and comprehensive medical care, to flexible work arrangements and financial support, P&G people can work confidently knowing the Company stands with and behind them.

Second, we’re maximizing the availability of products that help people and their families with their health, hygiene and cleaning needs, which have never been greater. Many of our facilities are running around-the-clock to deliver P&G products during this period of increased demand. We’re running extra shifts, putting idled equipment back into service quickly, and constantly finding new ways to deliver more of the products consumers depend on. These products are more important than ever given the needs presented by the current crisis, the increased awareness around health and hygiene, and additional time we’re all spending at home.

Our third priority is helping society meet and overcome the challenges they face. P&G has a long history of supporting communities in times of need - with the products we produce and other forms of support.

P&G donations of product and cash support are significant and will continue to increase as we work with communities around the world to support their efforts to help people through this crisis. Millions of P&G products are being donated, helping to ensure that families have basic access to the everyday essentials many of us take for granted. We’re partnering to provide additional support with some of the world’s leading relief organizations, including the International Federation of Red Cross, Americares and Direct Relief, and key regional organizations such as Feeding America, Matthew 25: Ministries, the China Youth Development Foundation, One Foundation, the Korea Disaster Relief Association, the United Way, and more.
We’re working to protect health care workers and first responders. The United States Center for Disease Control has issued guidance recommending proper shaving when wearing N95 and similar respiratory masks to ensure proper mask fit for protection. Gillette is donating razors around the world to hospitals and other facilities to protect the people working to care for others. We have modified equipment to produce hand sanitizer in nearly a dozen manufacturing sites around the world, using it to ensure our people can continue operating safely and sharing it with hospitals, health care facilities and relief organizations. Colleagues in our Gattatico plant in Italy volunteered to create an extra shift to produce surface cleaning and sanitizing products that are being donated to 70 hospitals across the country. Work is underway to produce critically needed non-medical face masks. We’re already up and running in China and the US. We have teams working to install additional capacity in every region of the world and will quickly begin production in the coming weeks. When fully operational, we expect to be producing millions of masks per month.
We have leveraged P&G R&D, engineering and manufacturing capability to quickly produce face shields in Boston and Cincinnati, which are currently being used in hospitals and COVID-19 testing centers. And we’re using our marketing and communications expertise to encourage consumers to support public health measures to help flatten the curve and slow the spread of the virus.

P&G is committed to these priorities of ensuring the health and safety of our employees, maximizing availability of products and helping society overcome the challenges of this crisis. Taken together, these priorities help ensure P&G is there for those who have always been there for us.