Our COVID-19 response

Last updated March 3, 2022

Our food manufacturing facility and our retail outlets remain open, operating  in accordance with all government mandated rules and regulations. 

We are abiding by the prescriptions and recommendations of competent authorities where we operate. They are the ones who have been and are making the difficult public policy decisions about how best to manage (mitigate or suppress) the pandemic in our particular part of the world, given our particular set of facts.  In Alberta, this principally means the provincial government at this time.

There are other factors unique to our particular business that also influence what we do:

  • What workplace health and safety requires at each of our business locations.
  • What our team members want and choose to do, day by day.
  • What other stakeholders are saying and doing that affects us (for example, customers and multi-tenant landlords).

Whether we are open or not at any particular time, and how we operate if we’re open, will therefore reflect, first, our strict compliance with the prescriptions and recommendations of competent authorities, and then second (and overlapping with that first requirement for compliance), our best judgment about workplace health and safety, about what our team members want and choose to do, and about what other stakeholders are saying and doing.

In Alberta, in light of the relaxation of most public-health restrictions effective as of March 1, 2022, we have again carefully analyzed the changing rules as they apply to our business.  

FOOD SAFETY

Cococo operates a highly-regulated food manufacturing and food distribution business. In addition to us being in the business of making chocolate memories and experiences, therefore, it has always been true for us that, first and foremost, we must be in the business of being careful and clean and traceable. Our food safety protocols are well established for that reason, and they are a solid base from which we can respond today.

COVID-19 BASICS FOR OUR CHOCOLATE FACTORY AND RETAIL STORES

All of the COVID-19 Basics—words and phrases that have very quickly become part of our shared pandemic language—are in place at our locations.  Our employees:

DO

  • continue to wear face masks at all times while in the chocolate factory production floor
  • continue to wear face masks in the food-service environment of our retail stores
  • have the right and option, which we respect, to wear masks or not wear masks in common spaces (e.g. lunchrooms)
  • wash hands often
  • cover coughs and sneezes
  • avoid touching their faces

DON'T 
come to work if sick or if there is, reasonably speaking, a known heightened risk of contagion.

For all of our team members we continue to respect at this time: 
  • The option to work from home if the job is one that can be done remotely.
  • The option to adjust work hours.
  • The option to wear masks as a personal choice.
  • Parental leaves.
  • Sick leaves.
  • All other leaves of absence recognized by the Employment Standards Code.
    Retail stores offering curbside pickup and online fulfilment:
    • Chocolate Factory location in Mayland Heights at 2320 2nd Avenue SE Calgary AB 
    • Victoria BC Broadmead location at #520, 777 Royal Oak Drive, Victoria BC – phone orders only 250-744-1596
        Operational adjustments at open work sites include:
        • Transitionally, continued physical distancing protocols for meetings and manufacturing.
        • Mandated mask wearing by all staff in the food-processing environment of the chocolate factory
        • Optional mask wearing in public work spaces.
        • Touchless pickup and delivery.
        • A daily cleaning protocol which continues to require cleaning of hard-surface high-touch surfaces, three times per day.
        • Very frequent handwashing by staff.
        • Fresh gloves must be used by employees before and after picking and filling online orders.
        • No product sampling.
        In our Calgary chocolate factory and administrative office:
        • All factory tours remain suspended until further notice.
        DOING OUR BEST

        Like so many others, we are working hard to stay informed, and based upon what we know, we will do our best to update our online communications. Our first priority will always be to make and implement required operational decisions for our staff and customers. Online communications therefore may sometimes lag behind.

        We are grateful to our chocolate team and retail teams for their dedication and commitment to safety during the last 2 years, and thank you to our customers for your continued business and support.

        Brian Beck, President
        Cococo Chocolatiers