News and Updates

Arco has been 'Highly Commended' in the prestigious IHEEM Healthcare Supplier of the Year Award, in recognition of its work supplying respiratory protection, face fitting services and training to NHS Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2020, while health services were struggling to source personal protective equipment (PPE), Arco was awarded a contract to supply essential PPE and face fitting services to NHS Scotland. Since then, Arco has supplied: 230 million surgical masks, 7 million visors, 3,000 days of face fitting and training and 3 million FFP3 respirator masks. This support was successfully implemented through 50 managed local distribution hubs, providing PPE to over 2,700 sites.

Andy Owen, Head of Healthcare at Arco, said:

"We are proud to be 'Highly Commended' in the Healthcare Supplier of the Year Award category at this year's IHEEM Awards. This is a great achievement that recognises our support to the NHS in keeping healthcare workers, patients and visitors in Scotland safe and protected during very challenging times.

"Arco has a history of supporting the healthcare sector in times of emergency, including providing a strong response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014-2016, where we supplied hundreds of thousands of hazard suits and visors to frontline workers deployed to West Africa.

"When the COVID-19 pandemic began, we were able to use our experience and knowledge to support the healthcare sector with the critical protection they needed."

Discussing Arco's work with NHS Scotland, Clare Casciani, Health and Safety Advisor at NHS Lothian, said:

"Arco worked with hospital teams across Scotland to coordinate a face-fit testing programme, ensuring respiratory protective equipment (RPE) wearers were kept safe with correctly fitting FFP3 respiratory masks.

"Frontline staff were supported with over 3,000 days of Fit2Fit approved on-site testing, across day and night shifts. Arco also organised training for over 250 NHS Scotland staff members so that they could run their own face fit testing. They provided bespoke fit testing training days and continued coaching and mentoring staff so they themselves could be trained to Fit2Fit standards. So far, nine NHS staff have since gone on to pass their Fit2Fit examination. Without Arco's support, we would not have been able to achieve this at all."

As the UK's leading safety products and services company, Arco supports the healthcare sector with a wide range of products and services.

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Arco has partnered with Hull and East Yorkshire Children's University (HEY CU), a local children's charity that aims to raise the aspirations of young people by building their confidence with unique learning experiences.

As part of the partnership, Arco will provide new branded uniforms for the charity's 15 volunteer leaders as well as funding for an 'experience' session for a class of children in 2022/2023, which will include a visit to a farm, something which most of the children will have never experienced. They will learn about where their food comes from, as they look at different crops and they will also get to meet some of the resident animals.

In the past, HEY CU has designed a range of exciting and engaging learning experiences intended to stimulate ambition, physical health, historical knowledge, creativity and an understanding of careers for their future.

HEY CU aims to improve the mental wellbeing of children through engaging activities and sessions run by experienced leaders and volunteers. This is particularly important post Covid-19 pandemic, as an online survey, which took place between October 2020 and February 2021, found that 41 per cent of 10-to-11-year-olds and 52 per cent of 16-year-olds felt their mental and emotional health had worsened during the pandemic.

Arco and HEY CU have a history of working together on various projects and initiatives, including hosting educational visits by students from local schools to the company’s National Distribution Centre (NDC), and are now, following the pandemic, looking at new ways for Arco colleagues to volunteer and mentor local children and support Arco's goal of helping young people to achieve.

David Evison, Managing Director at Arco, said:

"Helping young people to achieve their full potential is one of Arco's core objectives when it comes to supporting the communities we operate in.

“Having worked with HEY CU for a number of years, we are delighted to be supporting them further through the funding of an experience session for a class of children in 2022/2023 and by providing new branded uniforms for their team of experienced volunteer leaders.

"We are also looking at how our colleagues can help HEY CU through volunteering and mentoring opportunities. The Covid-19 pandemic reduced the number of opportunities for our colleagues to volunteer, but with restrictions now eased, we are supporting more of our colleagues to help some great local causes just like the Hull and East Yorkshire Children's University.

Natasha Barley, CEO of Hull & East Yorkshire Children's University, said:

"HEY CU has a long standing relationship with Arco, who have provided us with great support over the years, including experiences at the National Distribution Centre for primary school children who learn about careers at Arco, Arco staff volunteering and fundraising for the charity, donations from the Arco Community Panel to support our work, donations of uniforms for our mini City of Culture reporters in 2017 and more recently for our team at HEY CU.

"It's wonderful to have this relationship recognised formally in a partnership and we look forward to working even more closely with the team at Arco to inspire local children to fulfil their potential."

Arco has been announced as one of the top 10 family businesses in the UK for employing apprentices and promoting apprenticeships for professional development.

The fifth-generation family business received the prestigious status as part of a list compiled by Family Business United, the global voice of the family business community, which ranked Arco as number 10 in the country as part of its report for 2022 looking at the number of apprentices in the family business sector.

The list consists of a range of companies, including JCT600, JCB, Portakabin Ltd and Hodgkinson Builders.

Those who made it to the top 10 list represent the best in terms of the number of apprentices, the creation of new apprenticeships and the number of apprentices completing and graduating from their apprenticeship programmes.

Arco currently has 10 apprentices at the business, working in a variety of areas, including finance, digital, customer services and safety, health and environment, as well as eight new apprentices that started this year.

Darren Ford, Head of Organisational Development and Learning and Development at Arco, said:

"As a fifth-generation family business, we are incredibly proud to feature in the Family Business United list of family business apprentice employers.

"Over the past five years, we have built up our Future Experts programme and have seen 34 apprenticeships completed and 29 that are ongoing. Plans are also in place for a further 30.

"Helping to nurture future talent and further develop the knowledge and skills of our colleagues plays an important role in the future aspirations of the business and will support our ambitions for growth in the future.

"We're seeing a greater uptake from a broader range of business areas now, so I'm very excited to see both our internal and external apprentice numbers grow over these coming months and years."

Paul Andrews, Founder and CEO of Family Business United, said:

"Family businesses are innovative and entrepreneurial, and it is great to see so many providing apprenticeships within their organisations.

"This inaugural report has clearly demonstrated the commitment of family firms like Arco who continue to invest in the next generation of their staff and provide apprenticeship opportunities in various areas of the business.

"Arco is a great family business with a long history which, in part, is down to the continued innovation and evolution of their business. It is great to give recognition to a business that continues to create new opportunities and innovative ways to engage with the next generation of employees, providing them with great career opportunities."