Weetabix

Find out how implementing the SafeContractor system, has enabled Weetabix to manage risk consistently.

06 Oct 2020 | 5 MIN READ

INTRODUCTION

Weetabix selected Alcumus SafeContractor as its health and safety partner in 2015, to assess and ensure legal compliance for contractors.

CHALLENGE

Gary Mobbs, Group Health and Safety Manager at Weetabix, said:

"We want to work well with our contract partners, we believe this is a benefit not just to Weetabix but to our contract partners as well.

Weetabix has taken a zero-tolerance approach; we can’t have a two-tier system; it just wouldn’t send the right message out across our business or to any other business coming in.

So fundamentally, we’ve agreed that no SafeContractor membership, no entry into Weetabix."

With SafeContractor we are confident across all four of our sites, should we have a visit from the HSE, we can actually display that we are really robust in our processes and systems. Rather than wavering and allowing certain businesses to opt out, we can display that we are absolutely adamant that we will manage our supply chain with robust consistency every time.

Gary Mobbs
Group Health and Safety Manager, Weetabix

SOLUTION

Regarding the operational implementation of SafeContractor across all of Weetabix’s sites for their management team, Allan Ridout – Group Health and Safety of Capital at Weetabix commented that:

"SafeContractor gives our contractor managers, business unit engineering managers and our project managers the confidence that SafeContractor is there if we need to use them. If we have issues on the site, we ring up SafeContractor and the speed in which they respond is rapid. It’s raised our standards across the board and what's great about SafeContractor for me is the support. The SafeContractor Portal is undeniably the best resource we get from SafeContractor; it helps us to achieve a zero-tolerance with our contractors, it gives all of our contractor managers with the logons the visibility of the whole 17,000 contractors.

Our administration team are fully supportive, and they've been a massive help and it's an easy system to manage as SafeContractor just takes all the hard work out. We've also developed a client specification with SafeContractor that handles all the client specific issues that Weetabix have above and beyond what SafeContractor do.

Demonstrating competency at Weetabix is a huge issue, so bringing SafeContractor on board satisfies the HSE with ensuring the organisational capability and competency of our contractors through a UK-leading SSIP scheme. And for me, SafeContractor gives Weetabix a feeling of confidence that we we’re reaching the high standards required. SafeContractor are recognised across many industries and I believe they're setting the standard with contractor accreditation."

OUTCOME

Andy Cooper, Business Unit Engineering Manager at Weetabix is responsible for managing specific sites at Weetabix, and implementing SafeContractor has made his job easy by ensuring that all staff on site are working in the same way, understand what is required of them, and most importantly are confident that the contractors that are coming in now aren’t just doing it their way - they're doing it the SafeContractor way.

"Zero-tolerance is absolutely the right way to go, it benefits me as a business unit manager as it improves the time I've got out on the job in the shop floor. The improvements that I've seen through knowing and understanding that every single contractor that we use on site or that we get into our business unit are all going to be geared up to use the same safe method and same ways of working. Now we don't have to look after the whole job as we've got a central Safety Advisory team that are looking after the job for us, and that is being managed by SafeContractor."