Vauxhall is awarded the gold level award in the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2016.

Continuing its winning streak, Vauxhall has claimed a gold award at the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2016. This year marks the 60^th year for the annual scheme run by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which has recognised Vauxhall’s Luton plant for excellence in safety. 

Vauxhall won an Achievement Award where it reached the Gold level, with the plant able to demonstrate its excellent health and safety management systems and performance. The award is based on occupational health and safety performance.

“To win an award at such a highly-regarded event as the RoSPA Awards is a great achievement for our winners, recognising their commitment to maintaining an excellent health and safety record,” said Julia Small, RoSPA’s Head of Awards and Events. “This year is a special one as the RoSPA Awards celebrates its diamond anniversary. The longevity of the awards is a ringing endorsement of the thousands of businesses and organisations that have committed to continuous improvement in accident and ill-health prevention.”

The awards will be presented at the diamond anniversary awards ceremony at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel on 13^th July.

“We have had an outstanding start to the year and have won awards in numerous sectors for our cars and vans. Now our manufacturing facility in Luton has been recognised for its outstanding health and safety record,” said Rory Harvey, Vauxhall’s Chairman and Managing Director. “Our team at the Luton plant works hard to ensure they work to the highest safety standards and we are pleased that this has been acknowledged by RoSPA, with the team achieving the highest level of award.”

Vauxhall built over 60,000 vans in the UK last year, making it Britain’s number one van maker for the 14^th  year running. Driven by UK Vivaro sales of over 28,000, Vauxhall manufactured 60,280 vans in Luton.

The all-new Vivaro, launched in 2014 secured 1,800 jobs at the UK’s only dedicated light commercial vehicle plant after workers won a ten-year contract and a £185 million investment.

Secretary of State for Defence presents gold award to Jaguar Land Rover at 10 Downing Street.

• Secretary of State for Defence presents gold award to Jaguar Land Rover at 10 Downing Street
• Gold award recognises the automotive company’s Armed Forces Covenant achievements
• Over 200 veterans hired since 2013
• Programmes include placement scheme for wounded, injured and sick veterans
• Jaguar Land Rover to be presenting partner of 2016 Invictus Games 

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon last night presented Jaguar Land Rover with a gold award for its active support of the Armed Forces community. The UK’s leading manufacturer of premium luxury vehicles has a long history of supporting the British military and continues to demonstrate this by meeting commitments made through its Armed Forces Covenant. 

Michael Fallon praised the company saying: “The support from these organisations is making a real difference to our Armed Forces community. They are ensuring that the men and women who have done, and continue to do, so much for our nation are treated fairly.  

“Whether allowing reservists the time to train, providing jobs or supporting veterans and spouses, these companies embody what the Armed Forces Covenant is about. I am delighted to thank them for their unwavering support."

Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Dr Ralf Speth, accepted the award on behalf of the company.  He was joined by Matthew Malley, one of the 200 ex-service personnel hired by the automotive manufacturer since 2013.

Commenting on the award, Dr Speth said:  “We at Jaguar Land Rover are immensely proud to have signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant and to be recognised through this award. 

“Service leavers are an excellent talent pool for Jaguar Land Rover and our supply chain, with skills that are transferable to an advanced manufacturing environment.  We believe that there is a close alignment between our company’s own values and attitudes and the unstoppable persistence of Armed Forces veterans.”

Matthew Malley explained what the company’s approach means for him:  “I was wounded in action and subsequently medically discharged during my second operational tour in Afghanistan.  

I was then told my army career was over, which for me was my life.  After a month-long specially-tailored work placement at Jaguar Land Rover, I got a job with their site services, where I fit right in.  I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.”

The work placement programme is run in conjunction with Mission Motorsport and the Ministry of Defence's Career Transition Partnership (Assist) to help wounded, injured and sick former servicemen and women find a fulfilling second career.  

It is just one of the company’s initiatives to boost employment for those leaving the Armed Forces, which also include a training scheme to tackle high unemployment among early service leavers, offering sector-based training, work experience and job interview training.  

The tailored programmes build on the company’s ongoing work with the Career Transition Partnership, through which Jaguar Land Rover employs veterans.  Jaguar Land Rover goes even further, encouraging its supply chain to recruit service leavers and recommending candidates to its suppliers.  

The company also assists its reservists with paid leave for training and encourages an ex-Forces society, which this year co-ordinated Armed Forces Day and Reserves Day celebrations.

Having been the presenting partner for the inaugural Invictus Games in 2014, Jaguar Land Rover has pledged to support the games in this way again in 2016.  This further demonstrates the company’s commitment to help develop understanding and respect amongst the public for those who serve their country.  

To be held in Florida from 8^th to 12^th May, the second Invictus Games will bring together more than 500 competitors from 15 nations and harness the power of sport to inspire recovery and support rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick service personnel.  

Jaguar Land Rover’s backing for service charities includes Mission Motorsport, Help For Heroes, Rally for Heroes, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and individual regimental associations.  

In October, the company sponsored the Walking With the Wounded Walk of Britain to raise awareness and retraining of wounded veterans leaving the Armed Forces.  This 1,000 mile walk included a stage from Jaguar Land Rover’s Design and Engineering Centre at Whitley, Coventry to its manufacturing facility in Solihull. 

MG wins GOLD at London design awards

• MG3 Design Concept awarded Gold at London Design Awards
• Created by young British MG designer Louise Thorburn
• Automotive personalisation inspired by British textile, fashion and jewellery design
• Concept also previews three new MG3 exterior personalisation packs

MG scooped the Gold award in the Product Design Concept category for its MG3 Design Concept. The award was announced by Mark Bergin, Founder and CEO of design100 at the prestigious London Design Awards held at the Truman Brewery in London. 

MG exhibited a concept for future personalisation of its successful new MG3 supermini at Superbrands, part of the London Design Festival, where more than 280 companies from 29 countries showcased their design talent. The Design Concept was created by 24 year-old Louise Thorburn, Colour and Trim designer at MG and drew inspiration from her degree dissertation in textile design for a future in which we would develop second skins as body adornment. This vision was then translated into an automotive context on the MG3.

Alongside the Design Concept, MG also launched three new exterior personalisation packs for the MG3, created by the Louise and her colleagues in the UK design centre, inspired by the latest trends in British fashion. They are now on sale as part of the new MG3 collection.

Speaking at the event, Louise said: “I am delighted to have had the opportunity with MG to develop from my graduate collection in such a unique way, exploring my vision of the future of automotive personalisation. People are increasingly looking to personalise small cars like the MG3 to match their personality, in the same way as they do with their home or fashion style. Having looked at how jewellery and fashion is used as a means of self expression, I wanted translate this theme in an automotive context.”

Martin Uhlarik, head of the UK Design Centre, said: “Vehicle personalisation has traditionally been a male dominated process, but with women often accounting for more than half of the buyers for products in this sector, we wanted to explore the future from a female perspective.

“Louise was given free reign in this project, without the influence of the male designers, to show how she sees personalisation developing. The result is something really quite different from historical designs and we are delighted at the reaction we have had to the concept, the process and the new designs that have just gone on sale.”

The latest collection of MG3 personalisation graphics, includes the three new designs previewed at Superbrands, called Boutique, Candy and Waves. These new additions join the existing range of more than one million options currently available in the MG3 range, starting from just £39.00 fitted.

MG3 personalisation options have already been phenomenally successful for the Midland’s based manufacturer since the supermini’s launch last year and the range now offers an even wider range of choices. All options can been seen on the MG3 configurator at www.mg.co.uk/mg3/configurator

Launched in September 2013, the MG3 benefits from an ultra low 4E insurance group, strong residuals of up to 61 per cent, exceptional interior and boot space, class leading chassis and driving dynamics and high levels of equipment on all specifications as standard. There are also more than one million personalisation options as well as exceptional value for money aftercare packages to choose from. The MG3 is priced from only £8,399 to £9,999, or on PCP with zero percent deposit or from only £99 a month.

The MG3 was recently selected by Autocar as one of its Best 50 Cars on Sale Today, ranking alongside exotic models from the likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche. Leading motoring guru Andrew Frankel ranked the MG3 ahead of cars such as the Audit TT and Vauxhall VXR8 GTS.

Since it was launched the MG3 has played a key role in the incredible sales success of MG, which is now Britain’s fastest growing brand. Official figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that MG sales have increased by 472 per cent so far this year. The industry average is 9.4 per cent.

Citroen wins gold at the Apple Green car awards.

Citroën has just been awarded a Gold trophy at the prestigious International Green Apple Awards, held at the Houses of Parliament in London. Citroën scooped the top accolade in the Automotive Industries category for Environmental Best Practice. 

The award recognises the brand’s investment in minimising the environmental impact of its cars, LCV’s and its manufacturing operations.

Citroën impressed the organisers with its green philosophy, which has seen the organisation focus on reducing the environmental impact of production, through customer operation, to end of life disposal and recycling. 

Citroën’s green philosophy extends from initial design, manufacturing in energy efficient production facilities, to delivering emission reductions and improved fuel efficiency throughout the vehicle’s operational life, with a 95% end of life recyclability. 

As part of the PSA Group, Citroën manufacturing facilities are ISO 1401 certified, indicating their efficient use of energy and material resources. This also applies to the majority of the production facilities used by its joint venture partners. 

Citroën’s continuous improvement process has achieved significant reductions in energy usage and this has seen the amount of energy used to produce a vehicle reduce by around one third. Also, water consumption per vehicle manufactured has seen a near two thirds reduction.

Citroën has also been innovative in the use of the latest material technology to reduce weight (without compromising strength) and increasing the use of sustainable materials. This includes raising the percentage of green polymers used in its vehicles to 30% by 2015. Citroën LCVs also utilise an increasing amount of high tensile steel and plastics to deliver weight-saving efficiency benefits.

Roger Wolens, Managing Director of The Green Organisation, remarked; “The standard of entries for these awards has never been higher, so Citroën’s achievement is that much greater. The manufacturer’s holistic approach to green manufacturing is evident in the range of green initiatives it has undertaken. Citroën’s continuous improvement process has achieved significant reductions in energy usage, both in the manufacturing process and on the road.”

Jeremy Smith, Citroën’s Head of Commercial Vehicles & Business Sector Operations, commented; “Our success in this category reflects the dedication of our research and development staff to make our vehicles even greener. To succeed, when organisers say entries have never reached such a high standard, is an even greater achievement.”