Guinness Nigeria plc records 1000 days safety milestone

By Omolara Olaosebikan

Leading Nigerian alcoholic beverage company, Guinness Nigeria Plc has recorded yet another feat in the area of ensuring the safety of employees and visitors in their breweries and sites by achieving 1000 days free of Lost Time Accidents (LTA) in one of its operational sites.

This laudable achievement was recorded in the Benin Brewery of Guinness Nigeria, which is now the third manufacturing site of the brewing giant to cross this milestone achievement following its Ikeja and Aba sites which also recorded over 1000 LTA free days all in the current financial year.

By general standards, an LTA is defined as any work related incident, involving injury or illness, where either Guinness Nigeria or a healthcare professional recommends one or more days away from work, or where the employee is absent from work or unable to return to work for the next shift or where the employee is attending work but unable to carry out normal duties. This assessment is made without regard as to whether or not the person was scheduled to work those days (i.e. off days, weekend, holidays, vacations, etc).

According to Cephas Afebuameh, Supply Director, Guinness Nigeria plc, “Reducing accidents at all our brewery sites has long been an active strategy of Guinness Nigeria through our Zero Harm Culture which seeks to create a consistent and proactive culture for safety across all our operations. I am extremely happy that the Benin brewery has recorded this amazing feat following in the footsteps of other sites like Ikeja and Aba and I pray that as we continue to sustain safety best practices, we will hit 2000 and 3000 and so on.”

The Zero Harm Culture model of Guinness Nigeria is founded on three pillars of operation which are prevention– all accidents are preventable and avoidable, compliance – working compliantly using the appropriate and provided PPEs (personal protective equipment) and following the right work instructions and capability – training and awareness on what employees need to know to assure their safety. Under prevention for instance, proactive measures aimed at risk reduction through programmes such as risk assessment, incident reporting, trending and root cause analysis amongst others are carried out to proactively identify and control site hazards.

Speaking on the achievement, Sesan Sobowale, Corporate Relations Director, Guinness Nigeria, said that the company is committed and cares for all its employees and visitors that might have any cause to visit any of the company's sites. “Very important for us is the actual human angle of this where we know that employees and visitors will leave loved ones to come to work or to carry out a transaction at our sites and we feel compelled to do everything within our control to ensure that they are able to return home intact to those they left behind. This achievement makes me proud to be a Diageo employee and makes me proud of what we do.”

In his own comments, Kingsley Imade, Plant Manager, Guinness Benin Brewery said “I am utterly grateful to members of my team who took it upon themselves to work diligently to maintain an LTA free environment. They have all imbibed the safety culture of the organisation and have lived out the saying 'If It Is Not Safe, Don't Do It' and that ensures that everyone will go home safe, every day, in all our sites.”

Earlier in the year, the breweries in Aba and Ikeja also recorded this milestone. This speaks to the fact that at Guinness Nigeria, we take our risk management standards very seriously which has translated to a hazard free working environment” he added.

It is also noteworthy that in 2012, Guinness Nigeria was awarded and recognized by the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) for Exceptional Safety Culture in the manufacturing sector.

Guinness Nigeria Plc is a manufacturer of many adored alcoholic beverage brands like Guinness Foreign Extra Smooth, Harp Lager, Snapp, Smirnoff Ice and Orijin amongst others and other non-alcoholic drinks like Malta Guinness and Alvaro.