CEO Today UK Awards 2021

kept up to date with what was happening within the organisation at all times. The result was a workforce that performed better than ever, and we are truly thankful for their commitment, resilience, and loyalty. The pandemic led to some really interesting projects for us. We were a supplier of over 25,000 mattress cores for the Nightingale Hospitals across the UK, and we have also been supplying filters for ventilators, manufacturing our own new face coverings The Vita Shield, as well as remaining a major producer of incontinence materials. There was great demand for all these products in 2020, which assisted Vita in performing well in a very difficult year. As a key supplier of PU foam in assorted medical and hygiene applications, we were able to keep our plants open throughout the lockdowns and the fact we were still operational, attracted many new clients who could not use their existing supplier because, sadly, they had to discontinue their operations for various pandemic-related reasons. Our high-quality products and service ensured that many of our new clients remained in place and continued working with us even after the first lockdown was lifted. I am delighted to say that this whole opportunity kept us going – despite a tough Q2, we never found ourselves in a negative earnings position during 2020 and our cash flow remained very strong too. We were also one of the first manufacturing companies to do mass testing on site. We were very fortunate that Lancashire County Council and the Army offered to come into one of our sites and do a specialised training programme for our team, which allowed us to ensure our colleagues and wider communities were as safe as possible in the current environment. The pandemic has certainly taught us to be very mobile and flexible. I cannot praise the teams enough for their amazing work during this time - all whilst doing community work too! I am very proud of everyone for the tremendous effort they have put in over the past year. What does The Vita Group do to ensure that all your practices are sustainable? At The Vita Group, perhaps the most important issue for us from an operational perspective is the issue of sustainability. We are renowned for our long history of innovation in sustainability and investing in circular economy products. We have been manufacturing industry-leading products from 100% recycled PU foam for over 50 years, and we recycle and re-bond over 30,000T of our own and our customer’s process trim each year into a range of products such as carpet underlay, foam shock pad for artificial sports pitches, green roof spaces, and underlay for children’s playgrounds. As a result of this process, we prevent tens of thousands of tons of material from going to landfill every year. We are finding new uses for the re-bond process in many market sectors as we are keen to continue utilising our trim foam. To help continue to shape our approach to the environment, we hired a new Chief Technical Officer in 2020 and have recently launched our new ‘enhancing everyday life’ vision setting out our ambition to lead the ESG agenda within the industry, outlining clear sustainability targets and aspirations for all of our operations. These include ensuring that all foaming plants are able to manufacture using sustainable polyols equivalents by 2030; and that no manufacturing waste is taken to landfill after 2040, an ambition which we have already achieved across two of our largest sites at Middleton and Accrington in our North West base. Part of our commitment is also to ensure that every new product we develop will have a sustainable option. They are certainly not cheaper, but what we are finding is that people are now more likely to spend 5-10% more on a finished product if they know it has been made sustainably. There is a marketplace and a need for producing sustainable and reusable materials. We are positive that investing in this area will be worthwhile and is the right thing to do. To help us achieve our ambitions, last year we launched our state-of-the-art Innovation Centres in Accrington, Corby, Middleton here in the UK and Lithuania. Costing a total of £1.3 million to develop, the Innovation Centres will work towards finding more sustainable industry alternatives. They are crucial to bringing about the required change by providing us with dedicated testing and research facilities. But sustainable manufacturing isn’t just about bettering our factories and workplaces. It’s about threading eco- friendly options through every new product we develop, and embedding green practices into our culture, purpose, and values. 113 CEO TODAY UNITED KINGDOM AWARDS 2021 Manufacturing Vita Middleton