14 | Southern Enterprise Awards 2022 Aug22325 Leading Confined Space & Height Safety Business 2022 - South West Ash Safety was formed because its director, André Beard felt that PPE and safety equipment was often being sold based on criteria of the supplier, with this usually being target- and margin-driven, rather than focusing on the safety of the end user. This drove Ash Safety to become a fully authorised centre offering effective safety equipment to as many brands as possible. Ash Safety is a fully authorised supplier and service agent for many of the largest confined space, height safety, and PPE manufacturers – and it is quite possibly the largest independent service house in the UK. It is also Ash Safety’s desire to ensure worker safety within the construction, pharmaceutical, shipping, telecoms, and water industries by providing equipment that is genuinely fit for purpose. This has been a difficult task for the company as safety can be viewed in many ways, but a task-specific risk assessment should always deliver the correct choices, and clients are these days understanding the value of this. As a result, the manufacturing side of the company was created to develop products that it believes are required but not currently being made, including the Gridlock® manhole protection system (BSIF Product Innovation Finalist 2019); the APL Load Arrestor, a back up to a primary load lifting system; and the APL Tripod (BSIF Product Innovation 2022 Commended), a six-person certified man entry tripod with unique benefits for rescue teams. The sourcing of Ash Safety’s materials and machining is kept inhouse or with suppliers in England, the majority being from Devon or Cornwall – a decision which was reinforced due to Brexit and the pandemic. This definitely made its supply chain easier than that of many other businesses. Additionally, the fact that the company is independently owned along with running its own delivery fleet has proven to be very beneficial and meant that it could keep working when others couldn’t during the pandemic. Initially, Ash Safety was concerned that the pandemic would decimate the business and it furloughed 70% of its staff, but these were brought back within months as the workload increased and it realised its own power to make it through and succeed. Ash Safety remains unique in the way it operates in that it does not have sales targets; it hires, sells, and services equipment according to clients’ needs. This doesn’t give it unrealistic spikes of business based on a campaigns, usually generating orders by word of mouth and personal recommendations, which provides long-term stability for the entire workforce. The company also has its own bespoke registration system for all items that are hired, sold, and serviced so it can call the client in when a service is due as well as contact clients if manufacturers make a recall of a product for safety reasons. This system is fully compliant with the latest PPE regulations to ensure safety to the user. Alongside providing safety equipment, Ash Safety has realised the importance of clients having understanding and training of the major role that equipment choices play in worker safety. Therefore, the company became a South West Water satellite training centre, helping people develop their training package. Things have moved on since then and Ash Safety is now a City & Guilds approved training centre for confined spaces at both its Honiton and Swindon locations. Its training policies are constantly developed as it has always believed training should go beyond what the syllabus actually entails. The more knowledge and understanding the candidate has, the better equipped they will be to ensure safety to themselves, their team, and the public around them. Ash Safety offers its own internal training, too, for gas detection, breathing apparatus, height safety, goods lifting, and PPE, with technicians then attending training courses that manufacturers deliver. Its workshops utilise the latest equipment and protocols to ensure that any item once serviced would perform exactly as the manufacturer intended it to. It proudly displays all of its technicians’ certificates on the walls at both of its locations, so clients can see exactly what the team are authorised to do. Not only is Ash Safety highly enthusiastic about ensuring the safety of workforces, but it is also very passionate about the environment and already has three electric vehicles, with its own charging facilities at its premises. Also useful is having its own drop testing tower which means that it can qualify new products before sending them for testing so there aren’t any nasty surprises. Now, Ash Safety is actively looking to increase the number of products that it manufactures inhouse. Also, it is seeking a new premises where it can combine all of its business under the same roof, as its current manufacturing workshop is a few miles away from its main Honiton depot. Whilst the company sees the next few years as being challenging for many, it believes that its focus on its specialism as well as product development will lead to continued growth within the sector. And we couldn’t agree more as we celebrate its well-deserved awards success, with no doubt that this company will continue to set the bar high for the way safety should be done in the workplace. Company: Ashfield Products Ltd T/A Ash Safety Contact: André Beard Email: info@ashsafety.com Website: http://ashsafety.com/
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