Charles Lawrence Group Company receives prestigious accolade
Queen's award for Playtop
From its base in Newark, Nottinghamshire, Playtop has established a worldwide network of licencees for its impact-absorbing play surfacing. The result has been an increase in export sales of over 150% during the past three years.
Over a million square metres of Playtop(r) have now been laid on playgrounds around the world in such prestigious sites as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Euro Disney in France, the Emperor's Gardens in Tokyo and Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester.
Nigel Allen, managing director of Playtop said: “We are over the moon about receiving this Award. We believe we are the first company in the playground industry to receive a Queen's Award.
“It is a testimony to the hard work and dedication of all our employees and licensees. In particular, I'd like to praise Barry Baker, our international business development manager, who has spent the past five years developing our licensee network.”
As part of the Charles Lawrence Group, the first Playtop surface was laid in 1977 and is still in use today. Playtop has since grown to become the UK's leading supplier and installer of impact-absorbing surfacing.
The environment also benefits with Playtop surfacing as it is made from recycled commercial vehicle tyres. A sister company, Charles Lawrence International, recycles over 350,000 truck tyres a year to create the rubber granules used in impact-absorbing surfacing.
Nike Grind
Last year Playtop also became a worldwide partner of Nike, the global sports company, introducing Nike Grind into Playtop surfacing. Nike Grind rubber is the material created when old trainers/sports shoes are recycled and granulated, the end result of Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe programme.
This initiative is part of Nike's commitment to corporate responsibility and involves the collection of old sports shoes (of any brand) from collection points across the UK. These shoes are then recycled to create a rubber granulate called Nike Grind, which Playtop incorporates into its playground surfacing.
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Sapphire processes 50 millionth tyre
Sapphire Energy Recovery celebrated an impressive milestone recently with the recovery of its 50 millionth end of life tyre at its processing facility in West Thurrock, Essex.
Sales and marketing manager, Ryan Mifflin explains: "Fifty million tyres represents a saving of more than three quarters million cubic metres of landfill space, enables tyre manufacturers to meet their producer responsibility obligations and provides tyre change depots with a sustainable disposal route.
"Since the company was formed in 2001, we have invested more than £12million in processing facilities in strategic UK conurbations and developed a national network of tyre collectors. We can now boast an exceptional service providing competitive gate fees, full legal compliance and EMAS and ISO14001 accreditation. Year on year, our processing capacity has been steadily meeting the challenge to provide a long-term solution to the recovery and disposal of end of life tyres."
Sapphire is now processing over one fifth of all the tyres scrapped in the UK each year.
Safety a priority
Sapphire has recently appointed a dedicated health and safety officer to strengthen their service team.
Andy Jones has been appointed as Environment, Health, Safety and Co-ordinator and will oversee operations at all of Sapphire's seven tyre processing facilities.
Announcing the appointment, Sapphire's managing director, Tim Stott said:
"As part of both the Lafarge group and Michelin, we place a great emphasis on the health and safety of all our employees as well as visitors, drivers and contractors on our sites. Andy's appointment will bring a new dimension to the quality and reliability of the service we offer to our customers and help to ensure our current exemplary safety record."
Andy who joined Lafarge (Blue Circle) in 1990 as Mechanical Craftsman and transferred to Sapphire in June 2006 outlined his aspirations for the new role:
" Although Sapphire's safety record is excellent, there is always room for improvement. I shall be constantly reviewing the operations on all our sites, looking to make improvements and seeking to ensure that our employees and visitors to our sites have a safe and healthy working environment."
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