Industry’s highest health and safety accolade awarded to Hope Construction Materials
HOPE Construction Materials, the UK’s leading independent supplier of construction materials, have won the industry’s most prestigious health and safety award, the Mineral Products Association’s John Crabbe Memorial Trophy.
The trophy, which awarded for outstanding excellence in health and safety, was presented to Amit Bhatia, founder and chairman of Hope Construction Materials, during a ceremony at the impressive 30 Euston Square venue in London.
Coincidently, the award came just a day after Hope reached the milestone of 300 days without a lost-time incident involving any of the company’s employees or business partners, an unprecedented benchmark in safety at Hope and across the industry.
The annual awards, which aim to inspire and help the industry to achieve the highest standards in health and safety, attracted hundreds of entries from both large and small companies in the sector.
To be eligible for the John Crabbe award, Hope had to demonstrate excellence across four areas: leadership & engagement; worker involvement; management of contractors; and health, stress & well-being.
Hope’s top safety performance was also achieved during a period of major change as the company established itself as the UK’s leading independent producer of concrete, aggregates and cement. The business was formed in 2013 following the acquisition of more than 170 sites that being sold by other companies.
During 2013, the 900 colleagues in Hope were actively encouraged to get involved in health and safety improvement initiatives. Among other initiatives, teams came together to develop Hope’s ‘Welcome Intervention’ campaign and the Health and Well-being Forum.
Nigel Jackson, chief executive of the MPA, said: ‘Congratulations to Hope Construction Materials on a safety performance that would be impressive for any company, let alone a business less than two years old that’s still in the early stages of development. On behalf of the MPA we applaud the safety spirit and ambition of everyone at Hope and wish them well for the future.’
Amit Bhatia (right of picture), said: ‘The journey towards safety excellence is long and not always straightforward, but every step along that journey is an important one. Today’s success is a reflection of our progress on that journey and I am immensely proud of each and every one of my colleagues. I look forward to the next milestone on our journey.’
Chris Plant, chief executive officer of Hope Construction Materials, said: ‘Our approach to health and safety has been behavioural based from the beginning. What we really focused on was the interdependency of all our people so they look out for each other.
‘At Hope, we believe it’s the duty of every manager to demonstrate visible leadership and to be an advocate for health and safety, never to walk past an incident and to always address things in their sphere of business. Equally, however, it is the duty of every one of my colleagues to make welcome interventions to prevent hazards from turning into incidents.’
