The prime minister was uncharacteristically all for health and safety last week when he officially opened personal protection equipment specialist JSP’s new state-of-the-art industrial safety helmet manufacturing facility in his Oxfordshire constituency.
JSP has invested more than £3m to create what it says is the world’s most advanced industrial safety helmet manufacturing line, which has a capacity of more than 4m helmets a year. The company’s new Evolution range of industrial safety helmets will be sold in more than 90 countries around the globe and will provide the platform for growth over the next five to ten years. JSP also plans to expand the workforce at its Oxfordshire base, including the planned introduction of new apprenticeship and graduate trainee schemes in 2012.
At the opening of the new automated production line on 14 October, David Cameron said: “With our economy today, we desperately need to rebalance it in favour of high-tech manufacturing and exports like this. It is heartening to see that the expansion has been made here in Oxfordshire and not somewhere else in the world.
“With our motor industry expanding here in the UK also, ‘Made in Britain’ is a label we can be proud of.”
JSP chief executive Mark Johnstone explained that the new facility will enable the 47-year-old family company to improve service to customers by giving them exactly what they want. He said: “We will be able to reduce lead times, and be more flexible during periods of both high and low demand. We are in the process of patenting our new technology, and we can now manufacture helmets cheaper here in Oxfordshire than anywhere else in the world.”
The new line also sees the reintroduction of the BSI Kitemark scheme, and in conjunction with the British Standards Institution, the launch of a new risk-based approach to PPE selection across the relevant European (EN) standards.
To find out more about JSP, visit www.jsp.co.uk
To see more photos from the event, see our gallery below.
Having made a comment about the EVO CR2 helmit after taking delivery of a sample, its good to hear at long last David is promoting a british company for getting a superb product right, it is certainly a world beater and in a class of its own. Take note we will be hearing more about this company in the near futher.