Reichhold honors safety excellence at Azusa, CA, plant

The Azusa, Calif., plant of Reichhold Inc. was recently recognized for three separate safety achievements at the company’s 2007 Safety Awards Banquet in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Reichhold is the world’s largest manufacturer of unsaturated polyester resins for composites and a leading supplier of resins for the coatings industry. Its Azusa manufacturing site at 237 South Motor Avenue employs 27 people. Globally, the company has 18 manufacturing facilities in 11 countries throughout North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe. The company is celebrating its 80th year in business in 2007.

The Azusa plant received Reichhold’s 2007 Chairman’s Safety Excellence Award, its second win in as many years. Each year, as part of the company’s Safety Awards Banquet, Reichhold presents the Chairman’s Safety Excellence Award in two categories: small sites with less than 50 personnel and large sites with more than 50 employees. The Azusa plant won in the small-site category. The award was presented to Azusa plant manager Long Le by Reichhold chairman, president and CEO John Gaither.

In making the Chairman’s awards each year, Reichhold reviews injuries, process safety incidents and near-miss reporting, and gauges employee involvement in each site’s overall safety program. The Reichhold Azusa plant was injury-free in 2006 with no process safety incidents.

Reichhold also recognized its Azusa plant as an injury-free workplace in 2006. The plant received a separate, special recognition for operating five years without a single lost-time injury.

“Safety is a prime concern at all Reichhold sites,” said Reichhold environment health and safety (EH&S) director Scott Snyder. “Operating safely protects our most valuable resource, our employees, and also protects the communities in which Reichhold operates. Our own EH&S vision states that Reichhold will be a welcomed neighbor in every community in which we operate, and we practice that every day. The Azusa plant is an example of where we want all of our sites to be in regard to safety.”