Action Categories

Tractor Supply Company COVID-19 Response

Challenge

As an essential, needs-based retailer, Tractor Supply stores remained open throughout the pandemic. With health and safety as the top priority, the Company needed to identify and adopt effective procedures to keep Team Members and customers safe.

Actions

Our first step in responding to Covid-19 was to hire the services of Dr. Peter Matos, a leading expert in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Under the direction of Dr. Matos, we launched an internal Pandemic Task Force to monitor and respond to developments in the virus. We significantly increased our internal communication efforts, beginning with our first companywide COVID update on March 12.

We introduced safety enhancements and benefits for our Team Members and customer, including at home Covid testing for Team Members; incremental appreciation bonuses, followed by permanent wage increases; remote work for non-essential Team Members; benefits for part-time Team Members; 100% coverage of COVID-19 medical treatment and testing; free telehealth appointments; PPE and wellness checks. To help Team Members with children navigating virtual learning, we supplied 3,000 Chromebooks free of charge. Additionally, we invested more than $8 million in renovations at our Store Support Center to increase the safety of our Team Members.  

These benefits to Team Members are in addition to numerous actions taken to support our customers and communities, as a purpose-driven company. Please read about more of our actions at https://corporate.tractorsupply.com/company-overview/Response-to-COVID-19/default.aspx.

Outcomes

Our unified response to COVID- 19 resulted in a record sales year for Tractor Supply, with Q2 and Q3 sales comparisons up more than 25% YOY. As of November 2020, Tractor Supply has paid for an incremental ≈300,000 hours to take care of Team Members affected by COVID-19 and keep them safe. Additionally, to promote increased customer service and safety in stores, we hired more than 7,000 Team Members in 2020.

Quote

At Tractor Supply, our deep-rooted culture of Mission & Values is unique and is the foundation of our success. We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive culture where we foster different perspectives, ideas and innovative thinking. One of our values is respect – the starting point for our diversity and inclusion efforts. Our strong culture is our values in action, and we truly care about each other and working together as part of the Tractor Supply family.

Hal Lawton
President and CEO
Supporting Materials
  1. Hal’s CNBC Interview – April 7: https://vimeo.com/405196982/d7bd6c8a5a.
  2. Hal’s CNBC Interview – May 28: https://vimeo.com/423667858/b6b03aab09
  3. Team Member Thank You Image

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