Tees Business Tees Business Issue 18 | Page 41

Serving the Teesside Business Community | 41 Cleveland Cable Company sets the standard Leading the way - the Cleveland Cable site in Middlesbrough. M iddlesbrough-based Cleveland Cable Company has become the first cable distributor in the world to be awarded Registered Stockist certification status. The new industry certification scheme has been designed by the British Approvals Service for Electric Cables (BASEC) to raise quality standards in the industry throughout the supply chain. Cleveland Cable has worked closely with BASEC, an organisation that partners with the worldwide cable manufacturing industry, providing testing and certification services. The Tees firm – the UK’s largest cable stockist - piloted the assessment programme and provided valuable insight of their experiences during implementation, across UK and Ireland operations. By meeting the stringent assessment process, Cleveland Cable has become accredited under the Registered Stockist scheme, validating its internal quality programmes, procedures and traceability lines. Employing more than 500 people across its eight branches in the UK and Ireland, the firm regularly undertakes quality assessments to verify cable design and electrical properties to ensure they meet the required standards. This includes in- house testing of cables held in their own stock. The foremost supplier of industrial cable in the UK for sectors including construction and rail, the company also regularly visit the overseas factories of its suppliers to undertake audits and to ensure professional quality management systems, along with production line and test facilities, meet the high standards required by Cleveland Cable and the UK market. The BASEC Registered Stockist scheme forms part of the company’s established Market Surveillance initiatives to drive the improvement of cable quality and safety throughout the supply chain and industry, with rigorous certification, factory auditing and testing. Alastair Powell, managing director of Cleveland Cable, said: “We are exceptionally proud to become the world’s first cable distributor to hold the BASEC Registered Stockist status. “We are at the forefront of the drive to deliver increased quality among cable stockists and distributors, which has now been recognised through the awarding of Registered Stockist certification by BASEC. “The status also demonstrates to the market our working relationship with BASEC, and our backing for the company’s commitment to exceptional standards in our industry, while also providing verification of our processes and the quality of the products we supply.” We’ve got painter training covered! U niversal Coatings has gained an important accreditation to support the ongoing skills development of its workforce. It has also developed a new solution for the maintenance of waste-to-energy plants, which has involved significant training of its personnel. The company, which is part of the Wilton Group, is delivering the Society for Protective Coatings’ Train the Painter courses for its employees as part of its commitment to offer high quality products and improving quality standards. SSPC Train the Painter is an internationally recognised and certified training programme. Developed by industry experts, the coatings applicator course has been created in response to strong demand within the industrial coatings industry. Industry demands teams working on road, rail, oil and gas programmes all attain professional specified certificates. The SSPC Train the Painter programme is approved and certified by SSPC and Lloyd’s Register. The accreditation has been awarded by Corrodere, a specialist coatings industry training and education organisation, and enables the company to deliver the training to its staff. Universal also intend to offer the training programme to external trainees from its facility at the Port Clarence Offshore Base. The training reflects Universal’s ongoing approach to skills development, which is reflected in its new energy-from-waste boiler maintenance service. In addition to significant research and development to produce the technical solution to clean the interior of massive boiler units, Universal has delivered specialist training in areas such as blast cleaning and working-at-height rope access for its personnel who work in 16-strong teams to complete the maintenance projects. Paul Johnson, managing director of Universal Coatings, said: “We are committed to a ‘right first time’ ethos, which is at the heart of our quality Solution - the Universal Coatings facility. operations and delivered by our experienced people. “This new accreditation will enable “The capabilities of our team, coupled Universal to help develop our existing and with our innovative approach to problem future workforce, giving our customers a solving, has also helped us gain traction in clear demonstration of our capabilities and the energy-from-waste sector as they are assurances of the quality products they will already successfully applying our solutions receive. on a number of plants across the UK.”