Safety Expert Arco Donates £64k to Support Local Community Organisations and Charities
Arco, the UK’s leading safety company, has played a key role in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the company’s commitment to supporting the communities it serves has gone further. Through its dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative and the Arco Community Panel, Arco delivered a programme of charitable support during 2020, with a number of initiatives focused on those needing support due to pandemic. This was achieved through a newly created Arco Coronavirus Grant scheme which made donations of £42,000 to support local charities helping those most in need, all nominated by Arco staff.
The second Coronavirus grant scheme recently invited employees to apply for 50 one-off grants of up to £1000 on behalf of organisations and charities in their local communities that are providing ongoing support in critical areas such as for victims of domestic violence, food banks, food delivery, and meals services. The panel received 80 high-quality applications and decided to award grants to 64 organisations, going beyond their original £50k budget. The 64 grants will provide help and support to a number of great causes on both a local and national level including mental health and wellbeing through Falkirk’s Mental Health Association and Run With it, victims of domestic violence with Black Country Women’s Aid, and Hull Community Church, homelessness and food shortages with Emmaus Hull & East Riding, Homeless Mobile run, Hull for Heroes and Rutland food bank. The company has now donated a total of £106k.
David Evison, Managing Director at Arco has previously described the Arco Community Panel meeting as one of his ‘favourite meetings each quarter.’ Evison said, “These unprecedented times have impacted many people in our local communities and through these grants we are able to help those who need it most. Arco’s continuing support to local communities and national organisations through the Arco Coronavirus Grant scheme, looks optimistically towards a reopened future, following the Government’s Roadmap plan to ease lockdown restrictions. We extend our commitment to keeping people safe throughout the communities we serve, assisting in today’s wellbeing for tomorrow’s future.”
Arco continually supports and encourages colleagues to provide their time and skills to local charities and community groups, allowing each colleague an additional two days of paid leave for volunteering opportunities each year.
About Arco: What they do and how they’re different
Arco is the UK’s leading safety products and services company. Its core purpose is to keep people safe at work. It distributes a world-class range of over 170,000 quality assured, branded and own brand products, including personal protective equipment, workwear, safety footwear, gloves, workplace safety and hygiene products. It is unique.
Arco Professional Safety Services provide consultancy, training, services and equipment to manage the most complex and high-risk, high hazard scenarios. Specialising in working at height, confined space and respiratory management, they deliver solutions for those working in situations with the highest risk of serious injury or irreversible damage to health.
Headquartered in Hull, Arco reaches its customers through its extensive product catalogue, website and national network of retail stores. The company has sales of over £320m and employs more than 1600 people nationwide. Its 400,000 sqft National Distribution Centre distributes products to 25k customers in the UK and Ireland, dispatching 150 pallets and 8000 parcels a day. Arco makes it easy for customers to procure and issue PPE with services such as digital procurement, vending, a mobile issue unit, wearer packing and branded workwear from their in-house Clothing Centre based in Preston.
As the market leader, Arco is committed to helping shape the UK’s safety agenda in order to ensure workers go home safe every night. Through an extensive public affairs programme, Arco experts have contributed to some of the key debates on health and safety regulation, product quality and standards, PPE procurement and emergency planning.
Arco is committed to providing safety equipment that is genuine and compliant with relevant standards and regulations, Arco tests both its own product range as well as carrying out surveillance on other products in the market to ensure compliance. With a five-step product assurance process, Arco remains the only safety distributor with an independently accredited testing laboratory, this assisted by a team of specialists in their Xiamen, China office who support with sourcing, quality control and factory inspections. Additionally, it is a member of the BSIF Registered Safety Suppliers Scheme, and Arco experts sit on numerous Standards Boards.
Arco was the first member within the H&S industry to join the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) incorporating its internationally recognised code of labour practice into its own ethical policy and in 2010 became a member of Sedex, the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange. To ensure ethical standards are met throughout its supply chain, Arco carries out regular independent supplier auditing. Working with the ETI and other regulatory bodies, the company plays a leading role in helping to educate and eliminate modern day slavery across the globe.
Principles of sustainable development have long been embedded in the way Arco does business. Arco’s Sustainability Action team has committed to ensuring the business behaves responsibly in all areas, investing significant time and resource to identify ways to reduce plastics, packaging and recycling.
Founded in 1884 and with a heritage spanning five generations, Arco demonstrates traditional family values and is dedicated to its Corporate Social Responsibility policy. Arco is committed to help keep communities safe, inspire young people to achieve their full potential and to enhance local life, making the communities they serve better places in which to live, work and invest. It does this through charity and community support, donating 1% of pre-tax profits each year. Arco also gives colleagues two days’ paid leave each year to volunteer in the community and the opportunity to partner with and sponsor community groups and charities, forming lasting relationships that support them in the vital services that they offer.
For more information, visit www.arco.co.uk.
