• Nortegas has implemented a plan to facilitate liquidity for its installers during the health crisis.
• The support package consists of different initiatives that include bringing forward the payments for the partially completed facilities, helping to keep the sales teams in employment, the immediate payment of invoices and continuing with remote commercial operations.

Nortegas, the second natural gas distributor in Spain, has deployed a plan to support its installers by facilitating liquidity for them during the state of Alarm, thanks to different initiatives.

Thus, Nortegas is paying its installers 75% of the amount for new natural gas connections just on the (total or partial) implementation of the relevant facilities, in those cases that the connections could not be completed given that it is currently impossible to access the customers’ homes.

Furthermore, and in order to help maintain employment levels, the distributor is continuing with its support for the installer to contract new salespeople, while also expanding that support to the other members of the sales teams during this period.

Finally, Nortegas is proceeding to immediately pay the invoices of those companies, bringing forward the agreed terms of payment at 60 days.

These measures are aimed at offsetting the economic impact that the current health crisis is having on the installers, who work in communal areas or housing which they cannot enter at present.

In addition, from the start of the state of alarm, Nortegas has kept its non-presential commercial operations active (remote sales, online channel and social networks). The aim is for the return to business-as-normal at the end of this period to be as smooth as possible for its customers and also to have as little impact on possible on employment in the companies providing those services for the company.

Nortegas Covid-19 action plan

Nortegas triggered its action plan in response to the health emergency during the first week of March, a week earlier than the declaration of the state of alarm.

This plan was implemented to help to minimise the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the areas where it operates. The plan has two pillars. On the one hand, it is providing help in response to the health emergency, by prioritising the supply connection to field hospitals and hotels, such as the Langreo Field Hospital (Asturias) and the hotel in Los Corrales de Buelna (Cantabria). On the other hand, it has adopted measures to reduce the economic impact on its suppliers and customers.

In this regard, Nortegas has brought forward the payment period established with its suppliers during the state of alarm. The company is thus paying the invoices of 629 suppliers ahead of time.

The company also wants to protect the most vulnerable groups. It has therefore made payments of its LPG bills more flexible for the most exposed people in the current COVID-19 crisis and for those frontline entities, including care homes, old-age people’s homes, parishes and other social action entities, foundations and healthcare organisations

Nortegas has also donated over 52 tons of staple products to the food banks of the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias for families in vulnerable situations aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis.