UK: Health & safety tests prove Greenvale AP’s in tip top condition
This accreditation was developed by the British Standards Institute to help organisations meet and exceed their legal health and safety obligations within the work environment, protecting employees, customers and the general public who may visit the site.
Andy Ferguson, Group HR/H&S Manager for Greenvale AP, explains: “As a responsible employer, we are committed to ensuring the well being of our staff. We employ around 750 people across the business with 80% of them employed at these four sites. This means the vast majority of staff is positively affected by the accreditation.”
Meeting the criteria for OHSAS 18001 has involved the development of plans for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control; a training programme for management and factory workers; and a definitive measurement and monitoring system.
Andy Ferguson continues: “Striving to maintain our agreed targets is something that every employee at Greenvale AP is responsible for from Director through to Team Member. It has created a real camaraderie and determination amongst the whole work force as well as actively improving the health and safety record on each site.”
Greenvale AP handles 600,000 tonnes of potatoes every year and supplies major retailers and food manufacturers including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Birds Eye, McCain, Young’s and Bakkavör. Greenvale AP is the only fully integrated potato business in the UK; it breeds and develops new potato varieties, grows seed and ware potatoes, washes, selects and packs fresh potatoes for the retail, wholesale and food service sectors and peels, slices/dices and par-cooks potatoes for the food ingredient and ready meal sectors through its Swancote Foods business.
While a significant grower of potatoes in its own right, Greenvale AP also boasts the largest and most diverse grower base in the UK. It is, without doubt, one of the most innovative and dynamic businesses in the potato sector with processing sites in the UK’s major potato growing regions of Shropshire, Berwickshire and Cambridgeshire and sales and marketing offices in Norfolk, Suffolk, Hereford and Yorkshire. Its seed potato operation is managed from a specialist office at Burrelton near Perth in Scotland.
Founded over 40 years ago, Greenvale AP has become a major player in the UK potato industry but it remains loyal to its roots and maintains a strong local identity working closely with the local community wherever there is a Greenvale AP site. For further information on how to become a Greenvale AP grower or how to work with this award winning company, visit www.greenvaleap.net.
For more information:
Lucy Hancock
Tel: + 44 [0] 20 8892 5665
Fax: +44 [0] 20 8892 5260
Mobile + 44 [0] 7973 822 052
Email: [email protected]