20
JULY 2014 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
Manual Handling
– Back to Basics
As someone who has
spent my career in
the building and home
interior industries, I
am particularly aware
of the importance of
health and safety in
the workplace.
When you are running a
team working in potentially
dangerous environments, it
is essential to think about
your own safety and the
wellbeing of your staff.
Regulations are constantly
being updated so keeping
on top of this and making
yourself aware of changes
as they happen is always a
good idea.
One of the best online
tools that provides you with
a plethora of information is
the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Their central
aim is to prevent work-related accidents by offering
advice on the best ways to
stay safe at work.
For many people, something as seemingly straightforward as manual handling
can result in an awful lot
of workplace injuries, as
I have seen many times
in the past. In fact, activities like lifting, carrying,
pushing and pulling are the
cause of a third of workplace injuries including
back discomfort, leg and
arm injuries and joint pain.
Musculoskeletal Disorders
(MSDs) are the most common cause of occupational
ill health in Great Britain,
currently affecting one
million people a year and
costing society £5.7 billion.
As this figure shows, manu-
al handling is an issue to be
taken seriously.
Prior to any manual handling, a full risk
assessment needs to be
undertaken to identify any
ways the task can be made
easier and safer. Some
simple ways to reduce
risk include: making the
load smaller or lighter and
easier to lift, breaking up
large consignments into
more manageable loads,
modifying the workstation
to reduce carrying distances and ensuring the person
doing the lifting has been
trained to lift as safely as
possible. Employers have
a legal obligation to make
a sufficient and suitable
assessment of the risk to
employees from the manual handling of loads.
So many jobs involve
manual handling that it is
important to know the best
ways to move objects so
your staff are taught correctly. Before moving objects,
you should assess the weight
of the object and remove any
obstructions. When lifting,
you should do so from the
legs, avoiding any jerky
movements and keeping the
object close to the body.
Though there are no specific weight limits in law for
what can be moved, factors
to consider include strength,
fitness, underlying medical
conditions, the weight to
be lifted and distance to be
carried, the nature of the
load or the postures to be
adopted or the availability
of equipment to facilitate
the lift. Preparation is key
and making sure you and
your employees are familiar
with all procedures will help
protect from preventable
injuries.
Craig Phillips is brand
ambassador for Swedish
workwear brand,
Blaklader. Visit http://
www.blaklader.com/gb/
Bond It continues major
investment programme
Spear & Jackson
Buy Out Completed
Bond It, the manufacturer of sealants,
adhesives, grouts,
fillers, waterproofing
compounds and other
building chemicals, has
made another major
investment into its
business.
The management
buy-out of 250-yearold Sheffield-based
international industrial group Spear &
Jackson has been
completed.
Following a £1M investment into its distribution
infrastructure in Q4 2012
and a further investment
of £1/4M into additional
technology to produce powder-based products such as
floor levelling compounds
in 2013, the company has
now invested a further
£1/4M into a new cartridge
filling, packing and labelling
plant.
The new plant, which is
both state-of-the-art and
fully automated, will enable
Bond It to significantly increase production volumes
on some of its bestselling
lines including its GB PRO
super high strength adhesive and sealant, and The
Gist - a highly versatile,
highly popular, multi-purpose sealant available in five
different colours.
Bond It has made this
latest investment in order to
accommodate rapidly growing demand for its cartridge
packaged products. It will
also use the new plant to
pursue new product development opportunities and
to further ambitious plans
for additional success a nd
growth.
Speaking of this latest
investment, David Moore,
managing director at Bond
It, said: “Bond It has continued to go from strength to
strength over recent years,
despite the difficult, and
thankfully now recovering,
financial climate.
“We attribute this success
to a combination of factors
including our products’ abil-
ity to offer all the performance, quality and technical
innovation of the market
leading brands as well as
our position as a large, and
crucially, independent manufacturer - enabling us to be
more customer focused and
more responsive in meeting
customer needs.
“The new plant will be
instrumental in helping us
to build on this track record
and is now fully commissioned and making an important contribution to our
success. So much so, that
we’ve just placed a second
order - representing a further investment of £1/4M into another similar packaging and filling machine.”
www.bond-it.co.uk
In a deal led by Yorkshire advisors, HSBC’s
Yorkshire Corporate
Centre has provided a
US$25 million finance
package to support the
MBO via a global funding
structure that includes the
UK, France, Australia and
Hong Kong.
It also included Pantene
Industrial Ltd, a contract
manufacturing company
with offices and production facilities in Hong
Kong and China.
The deal was managed
on behalf of the bank by
Senior Corporate Banking
Manager Neil Abbott and
Ian Flaxman of HSBC
Invoice Finance.
The Spear & Jackson
Group employs 460
people globally and is
based at Atlas Way in
Sheffield. It manufactures
and distributes hand and
garden tools, metrology
equipment, woodworking tools and magnetic
equipment under several
brand names, including
Spear & Jackson, Bowers,
Robert Sorby, Moore and
Wright, Eclipse, WHS and
Tyzack.
With divisions across
England, France, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada,
Spear & Jackson distributes products throughout
the world.
Pantene Industrial Ltd
has 950 employees, is
located in Shenzhen, China, and provides Original
Equipment manufacturer
and electronic Manufacturing services to international clients.