Univar strengthens European safety policy with Pyroban
- Categories: SHEQ, Univar Europe News
- 30 July 2009
Antwerp, Belgium, 30th July 2009 – Univar, a leading European company specialising in the sales, marketing, application and safe, efficient handling of a wide range of chemicals and ingredients, has announced that it has set a new corporate safety policy to standardise its explosion-proof forklift fleet in Europe using Pyroban technology. Pyroban is the world’s leading authority on converting FLTs (forklift trucks) for working in flammable areas.
Univar has almost 40 different facilities across Europe handling significant quantities of flammable solvents and the company uses around 250 forklifts. Out of these, approximately 20% are used in either zone 1 or zone 2 potentially explosive atmospheres. The company has therefore decided to team up with Pyroban in order to strengthen its overall safety policy.
“Health and safety are of the utmost importance to us and we strive to meet and exceed legal requirements,” explains Martyn Bapty, Project Manager for Univar’s European Operations Team. “Handling flammable solvents using forklift trucks has always been a focal point for site safety policy because of their potential to ignite through energy or heat. We wanted to standardise the approach in line with our European-wide management system, U+, which requires each site to continually improve their Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality performance.”
In order to introduce the new Pan-European safety practice for all Univar Operations Managers, for the first time a bespoke training was organised at Pyroban’s headquarters in the UK.
“During the training Pyroban covered both theoretical and practical information: from the legal aspects of the ATEX directive to what Operations Managers need to know in order to fully understand the practical aspects that keep an operation safe. The team also witnessed the explosion of a small amount of gas, which acted as a powerful reminder of why safety is Univar’s number 1 priority. Our goal is to have every European site operating with Pyroban equipment,” Martyn commented.
About Univar
Univar is one of the world’s leading independent distributors of industrial and specialty chemicals and related services. Univar provides its customer base, made up of 250,000 customers, with a full portfolio of products. Univar operates a network of approximately 170 distribution centres throughout North America, Europe and China. In 2008, Univar reported sales of $9.4 billion. For more information, visit: http://www.univareurope.com/ / http://www.univarcorp.com/.
For further information please contact:
Catherine LENNON
Communications Manager Europe – Univar Europe
Tel: +32 2 525 05 63
Mobile: +32 478 251 588
E-mail: Catherine.lennon@univareurope.com
Eva BÖCKLE
HILL & KNOWLTON
Tel: +32 2 737 95 00
Mobile: +32 478 52 35 16
E-mail: eboeckle@hillandknowlton.com