Always safe with Ansell

Ansell designs, develops and manufactures a wide range of protection solutions, and is a global leader in the field. CLAIRE RENCKEN met Raymond Rainbird, regional sales manager, industrial and single use, Africa, at the A-OSH expo

This was Ansell’s fourth time exhibiting at the show. “We have seen an improvement in the number and quality of leads generated from the show this year,” comments Rainbird, who is no novice to the industry, with eight years’ experience behind him.

Industrial workers, healthcare professionals and patients, as well as consumers worldwide have come to associate Ansell with premium quality, optimal protection and superior comfort.

Ansell’s vision is to create a world where people and products enjoy optimal protection against the risks to which they are exposed. People, be it at work or during their leisure time, require the right protection solution for the right application.

Areas of expertise around which Ansell is organised comprise four Global Business Units (GBUs). Each GBU serves a unique and different market, but what connects all four is the shared focus on protection, comfort and quality, combined with a quest for innovation.

Ever since it was founded over 100 years ago, in a garage in Australia, Ansell has been expanding and strengthening its position to become a global player. It now employs 15 000 people, worldwide, and last year billed US$ 1,6 billion (almost R 25 billion).

The four Ansell GBUs are:

Industrial solutions: This unit manufactures and markets high-performance, multi-use protection solutions specific for hand and body protection, for a wide range of industrial applications. Ansell protects workers and products worldwide in almost every industry including: automotive, chemical, metal fabrication, machinery and equipment, food, services and agriculture, construction, mining, do-it-yourself, janitorial/sanitation, military, first responders and household goods.

Medical solutions: This unit offers a unique combination of peri-operative safety products to protect patients and healthcare professionals alike. The innovative range of medical gloves and healthcare safety devices are designed to prevent allergic reactions, staff injuries in clinical settings, and medical errors.

Single-use solutions: The single-use GBU manufactures and markets single-use hand protection solutions for applications in a similarly wide range of industries, with a particular focus on life sciences and the automotive aftermarket.

Sexual wellness solutions: This unit manufactures and markets 18 global, regional and local brands of condoms and personal products. The division also takes part in the social health market, supplying major government and social organisations.

For the purposes of the exhibition, the focus was on the industrial and single-use solutions. The company generally uses the show as a platform to launch new products. This year, Ansell launched its new product, Intercept (a range of hand protection solutions with optimal cut protection), as well as its recently acquired range of Microgard disposable chemical suits.

“This year the interest was more around single-use products. We believe that this is because there are very few competitors in the market that can offer the variety of single-use solutions Ansell has on offer,” says Rainbird, who has taken the Ansell range to new heights across Africa since the products first came to the continent four years ago. “We have gained serious market share – aggressively.”

When asked for comment about the SHEQ industry in South Africa, Rainbird says: “There is a slow move in the right direction in terms of standards and conformity. Sadly, there are still many products on the market that don’t conform, but TIA (this is Africa).

“Although we are on the right track, South Africa still has a number of years of improvement and education ahead of it; in order to catch up with the rest of the world in implementing high safety standards.”

Ansell has been very involved in the drafting of the new safety standard in the hand-protection sector, which will be announced to the industry soon.