ISSUE 4
eview
Winter 2015
Inside this issue...
Graphene success
story continues for
Thomas Swan
Custom
Manufacturing
Divisional Update
Clive O’Leary’s
First impressions
of Thomas Swan
Compliance with
Biocidal Products
Regulations
Core values are at the heart of our
continued success and development.
Harry Swan, Managing Director.
With Christmas on the horizon we are now
over half way through our financial year
and I’m pleased to report that the company
is performing well. We are on track to
exceed our budgeted profit for the financial
year ending March 2016 which will be a
good result given the increasingly difficult
economic environment.
Much of our activity since the last
newsletter has focussed on our strategic
review. Every five years we undertake a
comprehensive review of our long term
strategy to ensure the business is growing
and on track to achieve its goals. This work
will be launched in April 2016 but I wanted
to share the outcome of our work on our
core values today.
I’m particularly pleased that the following
values were developed with the input of
people from across the company and reflect
what we believe are important to our
activities at Thomas Swan.
Our core values are:
l Integrity: We always strive to do the right thing
l Respect: We treat everyone with respect
l Teamwork: We are more successful by working together
l Excellence: We strive for excellence in everything we do
l Innovate: We have the courage to pursue new ideas
Performance Chemicals
An employee’s electric car charging up at one of the newly installed charge points.
Over the coming months we will share more
detail about these values with our employees to
ensure they are adopted and embedded in our
culture and all our activities.
An important part of this detail will cover caring
about our community and it is with this in mind
that I must apologise to all those local residents
for the problems over the summer caused by the
bad odours from the anaerobic digestion (AD)
plant. This should never have happened and I’m
told by the company that owns and operates the
plant, that a long term solution is being installed.
The AD plant represents a significant step forward
for our business through the provision of reliable,
cost effective renewable energy but it should not
come at a cost to our local community and for
that I’m sorry to all those affected.
I’m delighted to welcome Clive O’Leary to Thomas
Swan as the new Business Director for our
Performance Chemical Division. Clive joins us from
AkzoNobel and has a strong track record of new
product development which will be vital for our
business as we look to grow over the coming years.
Custom Manufacture
We have recently installed 5 electric vehicle
charging points at our Consett facility in
recognition of, and to support, the increasing
trend for electric vehicles. The charging points
will be available to employees and visitors who
will be able to pay for their use through the
nationally recognised Charge Your Car service.
Finally I wanted to draw attention to our
overseas activities and highlight the excellent
work that Chuck Van Fleet in our US office
and Peng Chen in our China office, and their
associated teams, do for the company. As a
heavily export orientated company (72% of our
sales are overseas) Chuck and Peng are a vital
part of our sales efforts as we look to further
expand our activities in these regions.
I hope you all have a very happy and restful
festive season and a successful 2016.
Managing Director
Advanced Materials
First impressions count
I have been made to feel incredibly
welcome by everyone in the Thomas Swan
family. People are keen to help me get up
to speed quickly and are generous with
their time as I ask lots of questions. I’m
impressed with the knowledge and passion
of the people in the team I inherited. Harry
Swan the MD and the management team
have particularly gone out of their way to
integrate me into the team. I joined Thomas
Swan at a very important time as the
business had just begun drafting a new five
year strategic plan.
My key tasks for my new role are to
maintain the current business whilst
growing into new markets and gaining new
customers with the support of new products
from the very capable R&D team.
I have been asked by several people what
my first impressions are of Thomas Swan
and after six weeks in the role of Business
Director Performance Chemicals, I feel
qualified to offer a tentative reply.
Sustainability in business has always been
a focus of mine, I’m pleased to see Thomas
Swan has good ambitions in this area
already and plans to improve. There are not
many chemical plants in the world where
Custom Manufacturing
Divisional update
As the Custom Manufacturing division
enters the second half of the financial year,
planning has started for an exhibition in
the UK, SCS formulate, which focusses
on the cosmetics and personal care
sectors. Preparation is also underway for
Informex which takes place in the USA in
early 2016. Informex focusses on sectors
including personal care, agrochemicals &
pharmaceuticals. These events provide an
ideal opportunity to meet new and existing
customers in a single location to introduce
and promote the Thomas Swan Custom
Manufacturing brand.
Last year, we focussed on targeting
opportunities in four strategic areas
including catalyst manufacture, personal
care projects, the agrochemical sector and
polymer additives.
The Thomas Swan new projects team
have been busy over recent months
evaluating new enquiries in these sectors
with potential new project trials planned
for later this financial year which should
provide a spring board for growth for the
division during the coming years.
Tom Porter
Commercial Director,
Thomas Swan Custom
Manufacture
[email protected]
deer roam free as I witnessed on my second
day here as I parked the car. The Anaerobic
Digestion plant which was recently
commissioned within the Thomas Swan
site is also a key demonstration of Thomas
Swan’s commitment to sustainability. I
recently visited the plant for myself and
it is an impressive facility, our customers
are also keen to learn more. I see some
key opportunities to improve the current
business using my experience from my
previous role alongside the experienced and
passionate people that work at
Thomas Swan.
So, I would say my first impressions of
Thomas Swan are excellent and I’m looking
forward to working with everyone in
growing this business.
Clive O’Leary
Business Director,
Thomas Swan Performance Chemicals
[email protected]
Advanced Manufacturing
Divisional Update
Q3 was an exciting time for the Advanced
Materials Division, with the announcement
of two new graphene grades being added
to the portfolio alongside planning to
scale-up our plant to tonnage quantities.
Elicarb® Electrical Grade Graphene Powder
for conductive inks and Elicarb® Materials
Grade Graphene Powder for composites
& plastics are the two new grades which,
in combination with the existing products
of Elicarb® Premium Grade Graphene
Powder and Elicarb® Premium Grade
Graphene Dispersion (AQ), enable Thomas
Swan to provide a full suite of graphene
products. The new products broaden access
to graphene materials in high volume
industries and have already generated
enquiries from new industry sectors.
Our engineers have continued to develop
our capability for manufacturing 2D
materials by Direct Liquid Exfoliation and
we are currently progressing plans to
extend our graphene capacity to 10 tonnes/
year in 2016. We look forward to making
announcements early in 2016.
Product development
also continues in
non-carbon 2D materials
and early evaluation
of 2D boron nitride
indicates good potential
in thermal management
applications, such
as thermal interface
materials.
[email protected]
We continue to work
collaboratively with
partners in developing
Thomas Swan complies with
Biocidal Products Regulations
Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. is pleased to confirm
that CasacideTM T400, the popular TCMTB
fungicide used extensively by the leather
industry, is registered with the European
Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in compliance with
the EU Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR).
these new materials and are grateful for
the support of Innovate UK and EU Horizon
2020 programs as we bring these innovative
products to market. We welcome enquiries
from new partners.
Thomas Swan’s TCMTB dossier has received
official approval and our company name has
been published on ECHA’s ‘Article 95 List’. We
remain in full compliance for the manufacture
and marketing of the CasacideTM TCMTB
range of leather fungicides, giving customers
3
full confidence in their own regulatory
compliance when purchasing these products.
Please contact the Thomas Swan regulatory
affairs team for further details.
eview
A day in the life of...
Up and coming
events:
key performance indicators and any
operational issues are discussed with the
Production & Engineering teams.
Name of event
Conference:
Next up is a Production Scheduling meeting
where production targets against plan
are reviewed and any deviations actioned.
Other items on the agenda are out of spec
materials for rework, Transport, Staffing
and COMAH.
Industrial Minerals 5th Graphite
& Graphene Conference
Date of event:
8th & 9th December, 2015
Location of event:
Waldorf Hilton, London,
United Kingdom
David Herron
Attendee:
Logistics Manager
Job Title:
Length of time at Thomas Swan:
Andy Goodwin
Employed: 14 years and 11 months
Representing:
Advanced Materials
What does your job entail?
Event website:
The main part of my role is to ensure all
customer orders are planned, manufactured
and delivered on time to agreed
specification. I also need to ensure effective
storage and segregation of products in
accordance with internal procedures
and relevant external regulations such
as COMAH (Control of Major Accident
Hazards). The preparation of a weekly
production plan and the checking of raw
material availability to fulfil the plan is
another key area of the role.
www.indmin.com/events/
graphite-conference/details.html
Name of event
Conference:
Informex
Date of event:
2-4th February, 2016
Location of event:
New Orleans, LA, USA
Describe your typical working day
Attendee:
A typical day starts with checking emails
followed by a daily team briefing with the
Logistics Team. Daily targets are discussed
with regard to customer orders and
incoming raw materials.
Dr. Tom Porter
Representing:
Custom Manufacturing
Event website:
My attendance is required at the morning
integration meeting where Safety, Daily
www.informex.com
Once the morning meetings are over I
walk around the plant. Starting with the
Warehouse & Storage areas my main focus
is on Safety and housekeeping whilst also
focusing on the condition of outgoing goods
and supplier packaging. Supplier meetings
are also part of the daily agenda.
Scheduling of new customer orders is also a
daily occurrence. At the review stage orders
are planned in to the production schedule
and any required raw materials or packaging
are ordered accordingly.
In between the above my time is taken up by
email review and other management related
tasks and reports.
What do you like best about
your job?
As Logistics Manager I have the opportunity
to meet a lot of people both within and
outside of the organisation and have made
many friends along the way. I also enjoy the
fast moving environment we work in and
without wishing my life away I find the day
flies over.
What are your hobbies outside
of work?
Football, vintage vehicle preservation,
photography, collector of modern & vintage
die-cast models
We hope that you have enjoyed reading this issue
of Thomas Swan Review...
If you have any comments or queries please contact:
Jo Hind – Communications and Customer Care Executive
Tel: 01207 599 388 Email: [email protected]
For further contact details please visit www.thomas-swan.co.uk
Committed to Responsible Care
This is printed on recycled paper
Performance Chemicals
Custom Manufacture
Advanced Materials