Blizzard Lighting, a leading developer and manufacturer of LED lighting products for event production, is keeping staff employed and paid until the curtain rises and the stage lights come up again. Outside of the internal team, company officials are also working to identify opportunities where they can help the community at large. Over the past six weeks they have been working with hospitals/medical professionals and state/local governments to leverage their expertise in global sourcing to backfill PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) stocks while the demand continues to skyrocket.
Blizzard purchased more than 300,000 high-quality KN95 masks from an FDA-registered facility. Their team worked with trusted, long-time suppliers in China to manufacture and transport the masks despite daily regulatory upheavals in both the United States and China. On April 27th, shipments started to arrive at their warehouse in Wisconsin, where they began fulfilling customer orders.
Blizzard is offering 10-packs of the masks for sale on their website to the general public with volume discounts and free shipping. Company leaders report an overwhelming, positive response as they also continue to seek out additional community partners to help distribute them to the front lines.
They have partnered with The United Way of Greater Milwaukee, who is set up to quickly receive large numbers of purchased masks, along with 10,000 masks donated by Blizzard, and will be able to distribute them efficiently to medical professionals in need, smaller community organizations, nursing homes, and others.
While most of Blizzard’s staff works at home now, essential team members report to headquarters to maintain business operations for their LED lighting and video inventory, processing new orders and supporting current customers. Plus, they say, somebody has to feed the fish. “The team at Blizzard is my family. I miss my goofy brothers and sisters terribly, and cannot wait to run around the house again, accidentally knock over a ‘Precious Moments’ figurine or two, and ruin the carpet,” says Will Komassa, Chairman of the Bored. “I will move heaven and earth to make that a reality.”
Staff members continue to produce new resources for customers, such as product demos, and maintain their dedication to technical services on the front end. Behind the scenes, design and development of new products and software continues, along with a now video-conferenced version of Blizzard’s weekly Friday happy hour. Wisconsin started its “safer at home” mandate on March 25th, which has since extended to May 26th.
More details about Blizzard’s KN95 mask offerings and their core products can be found at www.blizzardpro.com.
