Columbia Sportswear temporarily shuts North American stores

Columbia Sportswear Company has announced that to protect the health and safety of its employees, consumers and the communities where it operates, it will close its North America brick and mortar retail stores on March 16 through March 27. The company said in a statement, consumers seeking the products of the Columbia family of brands can visit its online brands stores.

“During this temporary closure we are offering catastrophic paid leave to our employees most affected by this virus in an effort to live our values of Doing the Right Thing for our employees, consumers and communities,” said Tim Boyle, Chair, President and CEO of Columbia Sportswear.

In addition to the North America store closures, Columbia has taken many steps including store closures in select markets outside of North America, enhanced cleaning protocols in all locations, implementation of work from home plans to reduce health risks, facilitation of sick leave to encourage and enable employees to stay home and avoid the risk of spreading illness to others, and travel restrictions to limit potential transmission of COVID-19.

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Picture:Sorel website