Company Background
Aramark is a leading integrated services supplier of facilities management, food, property and energy services. Aramark employs over 16,000 people throughout Northern Europe.
The Aramark mission to deliver experiences that enrich and nourish lives aligns with a long-standing commitment to advance sustainable practices that minimise impacts to people, animals and the environment.
For more than two decades, Aramark has been the facilities management and catering provider for all the offices of Aegon UK, a financial services provider specialising in pensions, investments and protection, including the company’s headquarters in Edinburgh.
Interviewee: Kirsty Webster, Sustainability Manager
Issues
How to keep employees safe in the workplace is one of the most pressing issues facing businesses right now, as they respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
As well as implementing new hygiene regimes and social distancing measures, Aramark also needed to ensure that Aegon employees have access to PPE, and somewhere safe to dispose of it once it has been used, without the worry of cross-contamination to either its workforce or other waste streams.
Solution
Working with Aegon, Aramark has devised a ‘Return to Work Welcome Pack’ for all Aegon 2,000 employees based around the country. This includes a list of safety precautions in the journey from home to desk and what to bring, wider parking spaces, one-way systems, new signage, increased cleaning regimes and new technology that enables Aramark to monitor what’s been cleaned and when.
Recognising that the staff would also need access to hand sanitisation and PPE supplies and then a method of disposing of the used PPE, Aramark set about looking at potential solutions and vendors.
Through its long-standing waste collection contractor, Simply Waste Solutions, the team at Aramark, led by General Manager, Terry ‘Taff’ Doyle, was introduced to co-cre8; experts in the field of developing innovative systems and infrastructure to recover difficult waste streams.
Co-cre8, a sister company of Simply Waste Solutions, had recently launched a range of hygiene stations and sanitising units in readiness for the return to work. Although Aramark investigated other solutions, it was impressed with co-cre8’s flexibility to modify an existing product to meet its specific needs. As well as incorporating a large aperture for safe PPE disposal and an automatic hand sanitiser, co-cre8 also added a centrefeed roll dispenser and fixings to house disposable gloves, face masks and sanitiser wipes.
Aramark were so impressed that it placed an initial order for 43 of these new Hygiene Stations for use at Aegon’s Edinburgh HQ and its other offices in Peterborough and Witham. A subsequent order for six more units has also now been placed, for use at Aegon’s other offices in London and Farnborough, and details on the stations have been passed to a number of other Aramark clients.
Results
The new Hygiene Stations are now in place, were ready for the return to office of some of Aegon’s employees after the lockdown.
Aramark is full of praise for co-cre8 and its approach to delivering an innovative solution to an unexpected challenge.
“Price was certainly a factor when choosing the co-cre8 Hygiene Stations, but what swung it for us was the aesthetics of the unit
The units are distinctive enough, particularly with the addition of the signage, so that employees will not be able to ignore them, and yet are not out of place with other office furniture.
We are really impressed with co-cre8’s can-do attitude and determination to find solutions to our new way of working, and their friendliness and honesty has been refreshing.”
says Terry Doyle, General Manager, Northern Europe, Aramark.
Keshari joined the co-cre8 team in 2022 and is responsible for the daily management of the business finances including financial reporting, purchase ledger, sales ledger and building relationships with customers and suppliers.
Wayne joined the co-cre8 team in 2022 and brings more than two decade’s worth of operational and commercial experience in the food service packaging and waste management sectors. With co-cre8’s portfolio of three business divisions, Wayne spreads his unrivalled skillset across multiple activities including for our Honest brand, internal Waste and Recycling Stations and System Design partnership projects. Wayne plays a key role in ensuring co-cre8’s operations are commercially viable, building and maintaining great relationships with suppliers, ensuring the smooth success of projects and keeping a smile on everyone’s face!
We welcomed Hannah to the team in January 2022 to grow and develop our Built Environment business division. Hannah brings a wealth of skills to the team including her fantastic communication and eye for detail.
Katie joined the team in December 2021, and plays a key role in supporting the Sales and Marketing Manager with all sales and marketing activity across the co-cre8 and Honest brands. Katie’s main responsibilities include pro-actively developing and reactively managing business-to-business sales opportunities, processing orders, general customer service and supporting with the creation and delivery of marketing campaigns.
Prior to co-founding co-cre8 in 2019, Peter spent 10 years as a UK Director of Closed Loop Environmental Solutions. With a passion for recycling and, as one of the UK’s leading exponents of promoting more circular solutions, Peter created and delivered many pioneering industry projects, most notably the Simply Cups scheme.
James has over 20 years’ experience in the waste and recycling industry. Starting with just one second hand truck, he founded and developed Simply Waste Solutions into a thriving, profitable business with a £35m turnover. In 2020, James decided that he was ready for new challenges and took Simply Waste to a successful exit, selling to Biffa plc for £40m.
Natalie joins the co-cre8 team with extensive knowledge and experience in waste, recycling, and circular business models, with her speciality in Finance. For the last 17 years, Natalie has worked, and was a shareholder, in a start-up, high growth to exit waste and recycling business, with 15 years spent at board level.
Georgia joined the team at co-cre8 in 2020 and is responsible for developing the business through creative thinking and effective communication via sales and marketing channels.
Rachel originally joined the co-cre8 team in 2019 as Customer Service Specialist for Simply Cups. Her role has since evolved, following the launch of the Built Environment range, where she now heads up all logistics including supplier liaising, order processing and general operations of the business.