Since its formation in 1929, Slater Harrison has always looked upon its employees as partners in the company's growth. Much of the success achieved over the last 70 years is due to the commitment and loyalty of our 127 staff, many of whom have been with Slater Harrison for most of their working life.

Incredibly, six members of staff have completed more than 30 years service with the company, with the longest serving achieving an amazing 44 years of service! In addition another 24 have worked for the company for over 20 years, whilst a full third of the employees have completed 15 years at Slater Harrison. Managing Director, Mike Braddock, himself a relative newcomer with only 29 year's service, believes that the current level of turnover would be impossible to achieve and maintain without the experience and dedication of his longserving staff.

Slater Harrison's long service record is a reflection of how both the staff and the company have weathered the turbulent economic times seen in the UK during the last 70 years. There aren't many companies these days that can boast such employee loyalty or success of this duration!

The local residents in Bollington had cause to celebrate this Christmas when Slater Harrison's new automatic waste combustion unit was installed.

Until recently, Slater Harrison's waste products had always been collected by outside contractors to be either recycled and made back into paper products, or buried in one of the UK's diminishing number of landfill sites.

Now, all waste created by the factory can be disposed of on the premises, reducing the need for either on site storage or collections by heavy lorries. Since the waste skip lorries always arrived in the early hours of the morning, neighbours will immediately benefit from less traffic noise as well as a tidier site.

The new waste combustion unit brings benefits to Slater Harrison, too. There will be fewer costs, since the company will no longer need to pay for waste removal, and valuable employees can spend their time in production rather than in waste handling.

The biggest benefit, however, is in the by-product of the combustion unit - the heat generated. This heat can be fed directly into the factory, reducing the company's heating bill by £30,000 per annum, and minimising the need for fossil fuel.

Having spent more than £175,000 on this new project, Chief Engineer Norman Crone is very pleased with the results so far: "The unit was operational within only three weeks of installation and has already improved our efficiency in waste handling. We look forward to environmental benefits in the longer term."

Because Slater Harrison is continually introducing new, innovative products to its range, it is becoming more and more important that customers have an understanding of how those products can be used. Slater Harrison has spent considerable time recently in training our own sales staff but has recognised that similar training is required for sales staff within some of the company's largest customers.

We have therefore produced a comprehensive Powerpoint Sales Training Disk which is available to merchants for use with their internal and external sales forces. The disk is free to any existing or new customer of Slater Harrison and, if necessary, a member of our own sales team will deliver the training for you.

The new training disk includes a brief introduction to the company and the production facilities we have to offer, then gives a full review of our standard product ranges. It is important that sales people understand the applications of the various products and this training disk will not only explain those but also the features and benefits of each product. Slater Harrison also specialises in bespoke coatings, laminates and materials which are fully explained in this presentation.

This sales training has already been used by Arjo UK Merchant's Group to train their sales team. If you are interested in discussing the training needs of your own sales team, then please contact Sandy Guthrie now on 0411 977988.