Joseph Ash wins 9th gold RoSPA

We’re celebrating across the Joseph Ash Group, after landing another RoSPA Gold Award – the internationally-recognised award for demonstrating high health and safety standards.

We have received the RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award for working hard to ensure our team members, customers, clients, and contractors get home safely to their families at the end of every working day.

Organisations receiving a RoSPA Award are recognised as being world-leaders in health and safety practice. Every year, nearly 2,000 entrants vie to achieve the highest possible accolade in what is the UK’s longest-running H&S industry awards.

The RoSPA Awards scheme is the longest-running of its kind in the UK, and receives entries from organisations across the globe.

Julia Small, RoSPA’s Achievements Director, said: “This is a fantastic and well-deserved accomplishment. All our award entrants demonstrate their unwavering commitment and passion for keeping people safe at work. By receiving this recognition Joseph Ash Galvanizing joins like-minded businesses and organisations worldwide, who represent the very best in their approach to Health and Safety. I would like to add my personal thanks for all the work that it has taken to secure this well-deserved award – congratulations to all those involved, who champion and drive up Health and Safety standards every day. You are a fantastic example to others in your sector.”

For more information about the RoSPA Awards visit www.rospa.com/awards

This year sees the return of the RIDBA Industry Open Day (Thursday 21 April), and we’re not only proud to be one of the headline sponsors, but we’ll also be talking about galvanizing at the event.

Hosted by the Rural and Industrial Design and Building Association, the day will include talks from expert speakers on topics such as:

Design of livestock buildings for an environmentally ethical future – Jamie Robertson, RIDBA Livestock Consultant
Keeping your galvanizer safe – Michael Worth, Head of Technical & ESG, Joseph Ash Galvanizing
Technical updates including NSSS – Martin Heywood, RIDBA Technical Consultant
Managing mental health in the workplace – Adrian Brine of Citation

Guests will also have the opportunity to enjoy a nice lunch and catch-up with industry colleagues, suppliers and sponsors.

It will take place at the beautiful Abbey Hotel in Malvern, Worcestershire, and will conclude with a tour of the nearby Morgan Motors Factory.

If you’d like to attend, there’s still time to get a ticket! We’d love to see you there.

Last week, our Bilston plant had a visit from Pat McFadden, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Lucy Foster-Bowen (Commercial Manager) and Robert Nelson (Divisional Manager) showed him around the Bilston plant. Pat was impressed the variety of steel we process at Joseph Ash, including – in this photo – vine pickets for vineyards across Europe.

Bilston is proud of the plant and the work carried out there, so it’s always great to welcome new visitors.

An end of year message from Steven Hopkins, MD, Joseph Ash Ltd

To all our dear customers,

Another challenging year approaches its end! I have come to the view that you, our fabricator customers, and ourselves are sharing the same boat. We all had a dose of uncertainty from the start of 2021, then struggled with labour, then suffered from wage pressure from the driver sector of the workforce, then started to see material supply issues followed by considerable cost increases in just about every bought-in material and chemical. And then, to cap it all, massive increases in energy costs! Oh yes, going full circle, we come back currently to severe pressure on manufacturing wages.

So, I guess we will all be grateful to get 2021 behind us but, hang on, here we go again with possibly another destructive round of Covid! I fear that many Brits have become a bit complacent about it and have begun to ignore the high daily infection numbers, whilst we feel (perhaps with too much confidence) reasonably secured by our double or triple jabs. So caution has gone out of much of our behaviours in public. Not so, though, at Joseph Ash Group – we have never relaxed our Covid defence rules and we have kept up the mask-wearing, distancing, cleaning and detailed investigation of the movements and contacts at work of anyone testing positive for the few days before doing so. Therefore I believe that any of your drivers visiting our sites will continue to be safe, but will, of course, be asked to carry on respecting our rules.

It is difficult to predict the year ahead. Some further restrictions seem highly likely, with maybe even a short lockdown, with lessons learned from 2020 and an acceptance that the economy must continue to function. I doubt if material supply will get any easier for a while yet, and the ongoing, now routine, self-isolation of employees will keep us all several per cent short in labour. On the plus side, demand appears to be holding up. There seems to be plenty of money to fund investment in steel capital goods and projects, with many still awaiting associated materials to allow completion.

So, I wish us all luck in this manufacturing partnership boat of ours, and pray that the seas will remain reasonably calm. But, most of all, I wish that together, our staff and yours will stay healthy and content, starting with a very Happy Christmas for all, followed by a successful, safe and prosperous New Year.

Take very, very good care,

Steven

Lucy Foster-Bowen from Joseph Ash Bilston explains why in a podcast hosted by MIDFIX.

For products and solutions supporting mechanical and electrical services, the finish of the supports matter. Galvanizing is important as it plays a primary role in the protection of steel supports. Lucy Foster-Bowen from Joseph Ash Galvanizing explains why when she was invited to take part in a podcast hosted by MIDFIX.

Lucy covers topics such as:

What is galvanizing?
The history of galvanizing?
The process of galvanizing steel
The life expectancy of a product with galvanized steel
Venting and drainage
A pre-galvanized finish
The environmental impacts of galvanizing
How galvanizing impacts M&E supports.

Watch the podcast here. It was a great session!

Thanks for inviting us MIDFIX!

(MIDFIX are experts in onsite and offsite supports for the mechanical and electrical industries, delivered through design, engineering, fabrication and industry training.)

Joseph Ash becomes an approved Driver CPC centre

At Joseph Ash Galvanizing, we strive to ensure our employees drive safely and efficiently when collecting and delivering projects to our customers. As part of this process, we provide a fleet of modern and reliable trucks and regular driver training.

Our training efforts have recently received a boost at Joseph Ash because Simon Keane – Group H&S Transport Manager – has successfully gained DCPC training centre approval from JAUPT, this allows him to train other drivers and write approved driver safety course materials. In addition, classes will be delivered to other colleagues across our plants, helping them increase their driver safety and vocational training.

Simon’s first course is titled ‘Load Build and Load Restraint Principles’. He also plans to write more classes based around:

Driver safety
Customer service
Health and wellbeing
Company policies and practices

As Simon has become an approved trainer, it means the following Joseph Ash sites are now classed as Driver CPC Training Centres:

Bilston
Telford
Medway
Walsall
Chesterfield
Hull

Simon aims to deliver training at all sites and invite Joseph Ash/Premier Galvanizing drivers from other sites.

Congratulations to Simon for achieving the approved status for himself and the Joseph Ash Group. This is an excellent job well done and proof that Joseph Ash continually looks after its employees and invests in its people.

Over 40 years ago, Netherton Colts FC started in the Midlands. Since then, the Club has given sporting opportunities to hundreds of local children and has positively impacted the local community. The Club currently has 13 teams across all age groups from under 7 through to open age 18+. It also runs the Netherton Colts Soccer Clinic, an open ability training scheme for boys and girls ages 4-8, introducing them to football.

This season the U7s team are playing in the Stourbridge and District Youth Football League under the Birmingham County Football Association, and Joseph Ash Galvanizing is a proud sponsor.

Matt Cooper, Netherton Colts U7s Coach told us: “The U7s team has developed a fantastic hardworking attitude and desire to improve over pre-season, and they are now seeing the rewards for their hard work. They have had a tremendous start to the season, and they are playing with so much enjoyment and getting brilliant results. This year they’ll also look great as the sponsorship money from Joseph Ash has enabled us to provide team training wear and training equipment.

“We are aware of the potential impact we can have on the young players’ lives. We hope to develop the youngsters not only as football players but also to help build their confidence, respect for people and the world around them, and play a part in having a positive impact on our communities in the future.”

Good luck for the 2021/2 season Netherton Colts U7s!

CEO Steven Hopkins visits the ancestral home of the Joseph Ash family.

Last weekend our CEO Steven Hopkins had the pleasure of visiting Packwood House in Warwickshire. The National Trust owns the house and if you like visiting heritage properties, this is well worth a trip, not only to see an example of 16th-century architecture but also to walk around the renowned gardens, with their herbaceous borders and a fine collection of yews.

But why is this of particular interest to Joseph Ash Galvanizing?

Packwood was first built around 1570 by the Fetherston family. However, by the early 1900s, it became home to Alfred Freer Ash, the son of Joseph Ash (1824-1915) – who had founded Joseph Ash Galvanizing in 1857. Alfred Ash died in 1921 and bequeathed his estate to his son, Graham Baron Ash (1889-1980), who set about restoring and extending it between the First and Second World Wars.

He filled it with fittings and furniture throughout these years, which he rescued from old, demolished houses, resulting in a place described as ‘Jacobean meets Edwardian’. There are some very fine examples of early English furniture and tapestries to be seen there.

Graham Baron Ash once said: “I am rescuing whatever I can from other places and preserving it here. I do this as an antidote to the decay and demolition of so many old houses all over the country.”

This thought-process gladdens us. To this day, Joseph Ash Galvanizing places great importance on sustainability and the benefits of ‘Making-Using-Reusing-Remaking-Recycling’, so it’s wonderful to see this ethos wholeheartedly embraced by the original family behind the Company.

If you’d like to visit Packwood House, find out more at the National Trust.

See a photo of Joseph, Alfred and Graham Baron Ash at Packwood House in 1905.

We’re celebrating after landing the internationally-recognised RoSPA Award for the eighth year in a row!

Joseph Ash Galvanizing has received a RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award for working hard to ensure our staff, customers, clients, and contractors get home safely to their families at the end of every working day.

Mick Jackson from Joseph Ash Galvanizing said: “It’s great that we have won the RoSPA Gold Award. This is the eighth consecutive year we have been recognised for our excellent health and safety standards, performance and systems, and it gives us immense pride.”

Julia Small, RoSPA’s achievements director, said: “The RoSPA Awards scheme is the longest-running of its kind in the UK, but it receives entries from organisations across the globe, making it one of the most sought-after achievement awards for health and safety worldwide.

“RoSPA is very proud of the achievements of its entrants, and with this award we recognise the best of the best, those organisations that have gone the extra mile, raising the bar for the delivery of safety in the workplace. Employees, wherever they may be, should be able to go to work safe in the knowledge that they will return home unharmed and healthy at the end of every day. Our RoSPA Award winners are central to achieving this goal. By entering they are driving up standards and setting new safety benchmarks for organisations across the world. Currently, around 7million people are directly impacted by the RoSPA Awards, but the scheme’s global influence is even wider – with nearly 2000 organisations from 46 countries represented this year. I would also particularly want to thank our main sponsor NEBOSH, the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health – for their continued support for the 16th consecutive year.”

For more information about the RoSPA Awards visit www.rospa.com/awards

We’re looking for additional hot dip galvanizing operatives for our Bilston, Bridgend, Chesterfield, Corby, Hull, Medway, Telford and Walsall plants. Are you interested?

We’re searching for reliable, flexible, self-motivated and hardworking individuals, to be employed on a full-time basis (after successful completion of a probationary period).

The plants operate 24 hours with team members working on a rotating shift system (including some weekends) to meet customer demand.

The role ensures the safe and efficient processing of work, from receipt through to the galvanizing process to finished product ready for despatch.

We offer a structured training programme for all team members.

Applicants must be physically fit and work well in a team within a fast moving production environment, where excellent customer service and high product quality is the key to our continued success. An excellent attitude towards health and safety is a pre-requisite of the role.

For further information please email:

Rob Nelson (Divisional Manager at Joseph Ash Bilston)
Kevin Williams (Divisional Manager at Joseph Ash Bridgend)
Mark Payne (Divisional Manager at Joseph Ash Chesterfield)
David Prattis (Divisional Manager at Premier Galvanizing Corby)
Alex Camp (General Manager at Premier Galvanizing Hull)
Tim Palmer (General Manager at Joseph Ash Medway) or Joel Fletcher
Stuart Cobourne (Divisional Manager Joseph Ash Telford)
Charlie Singh (Divisional Manager at Joseph Ash Walsall)

Discretion assured. No agencies please.

Joseph Ash wins 9th gold RoSPA

For more information about the RoSPA Awards visit www.rospa.com/awards

We’d love to see you there!

We’re looking for additional hot dip galvanizing operatives for our Bilston, Bridgend, Chesterfield, Corby, Hull, Medway, Telford and Walsall plants. Are you interested?

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