Customer Update, April 9th, 2020 | Todd Hilde, CEO/Owner Satellite Industries

Dear Valued Customers,

It is my hope that this letter finds you well. At this time in the crisis, we are thankful to be providing sanitation options to people across the globe. We are grateful to serve, and grateful to be working and producing sanitation products.

The portable sanitation industry is certainly rising to the occasion during this unprecedented time. We are seeing widespread innovation occurring across the industry. Our products are on the front line of helping contain this pandemic, and we are seeing new and creative opportunities for our industry. We want to share some of the images we’ve gathered from around the world. Thank you to all the operators who are helping lead this global effort.

Like your business, Satellite Industries has been deemed an essential business under CIMA Guidelines and as such we will remain open and shipping our full range of toilets, deodorizers, service trucks and restroom trailers to keep our industry supplied. As your partner, we will continue working hard to provide essential products and services to support your business and local communities.

Warehouse Operations and Customer Pick Ups

All warehouses are open with no change in business hours. Customer pick-ups are still being accommodated with slight procedural changes to help keep everyone safe:

• Please call upon arrival and provide a sales order number.
• Satellite staff will assist with loading if social distancing guidelines are followed.

Regional warehouse locations can found here.

Hand Wash and Sanitizer Products

The industry as a whole is facing unprecedented demand for handwashing products. We believe that this demand will continue forever, and our industry will be changed. We are currently investing to allow for flash demand and steady demand into the next season and year ahead. Our performance with free-standing sink lead times has not been good. We understand you are making commitments to your customers and the supply has been unstable. A significant amount of energy is not only going to fulfill the next 8-12 weeks of orders but even more time into correcting the overly long lead times. We are sorry for the chaos, and help is on the way.

Our chances of meeting the needs of the hand washing/sanitizing market are far greater with external and internal handwashing stations than they are fixing the global hand sanitizer supply chain problems. Water and soap can be found readily and are an effective solution. The world has learned to wash their hands and our industry has a marvelous opportunity here. We hope that all our customers are beginning to envision much more portable hand washing on your routes, and how that will change your management of the route. The cost associated with delivering 10-20 gallons of fresh water per unit, providing soap and paper towels is significant so we hope everyone commands a market price for this service high enough to do an amazing job serving the end-users!

The Slimmate 3, an interior handwash sink, which fits most units in the field including some competitors, has the best lead times and greater capacities to supply quickly. These can be used to convert your existing portable restrooms into a more sanitary solution or creatively used to create a free-standing handwash option like the MacGvyer.

With that said, we have one great announcement regarding bulk hand sanitizer in 55-gallon drums and 275-gallon totes for refilling existing sanitizer bags. An FDA approved hand sanitizer will come online next week, and we will have ample supply of this product along with instructions and a tutorial video on how to refill your own sanitizer bags. You will see perhaps 1-2 week lead times for this product during the peak demand season.

Restroom Trailers

As mobile sites continue to pop up at hospitals and other locations, there has been strong demand for restroom and shower trailers. We have stock on the ground, ready to ship, of some models with more hitting our production lines soon. Please reference Satellite Suites on hand inventory for your immediate needs or contact your regional sales manager to discuss options.

Five Peaks

I would also like to update you on our progress since acquiring the Five Peaks brand. We are continuing to integrate the Five Peaks product line into our supply chain and have plenty of units on the shelf in a variety of colors for immediate shipment. We can ship assembled as well as unassembled from multiple locations. Please contact us for available stock. We have also started up new production of the Ride Along sink and Hand Sanitizer Stand to supplement the current demand for these products and will be bringing others online soon.

Human Resources Support

We understand that as an industry built on small businesses, many of you are facing human resource issues related to COVID-19. We are fortunate to have a very talented VP of Human Resources, Michele Pipitone, who has offered her assistance with providing general advice and direction on many of the pressing employee-related issues you now face. She will be posting related information and be available as a resource for you to ask questions of during this time of crisis. For more information please reference our COVID-19 response page.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Best regards,

Todd Hilde
CEO/Owner
Satellite Industries, Inc

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