How Swift360 Provide Significant Savings & Improve Safety for Biffa.

21 Jan 2020

Swift360’s customer service, NPD pipeline and technical support teams are second to none. They consistently deliver (if not over deliver), against Biffa’s business requirements across 200+ sites throughout the UK. It is not often I can say that, after 23 years as a procurement professional, Swift360 are one of the best performing suppliers I have ever worked with.

James Dale, Biffa

THE COMPANYBiffa is a leading integrated waste management company providing collection, recycling, treatment, disposal and technologically driven energy generation services. With over 200 sites, 7,500 employees, and covering 95% of UK postcodes, Biffa control a significant proportion of waste arising in the UK.

Biffa operate across four divisions:

Industrial and CommercialHousehold WasteResource Recovery and TreatmentEnergyThe Board of Biffa consider that health, safety and wellbeing are the highest priority within the business and are relentlessly committed to keeping their people, customers and the public safe throughout all of their activities.

Swift360’s customer service, NPD pipeline and technical support teams are second to none. They consistently deliver (if not over deliver), against Biffa’s business requirements across 200+ sites throughout the UK. It is not often I can say that, after 23 years as a procurement professional, Swift360 are one of the best performing suppliers I have ever worked with.

James Dale, BiffaTHE GOALBiffa’s objective is to prevent injury and ill health and to continually improve their Health, Safety and Wellbeing performance.

To aid Biffa with this goal, Swift360 has been:

WORKING ON A NEW SAFETY BOOT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMSpecifically for the Waste Sector, with Biffa as the prime launch customer. The challenges of this include comfort, water resistance of upper and durability, all of which effect employee productivity.

Swift360 representatives are now going out and ‘working on the rounds’ in order to gain an intimate understanding of the challenges Biffa workers face. In the meantime, we’re adopting the FootStop program with great success to resolve any immediate issues, resulting in significant employee engagement. This service uses a scanner to detect the dimensions of workers feet, giving insight into how and where their feet are being subjected to pressure and load. By utilising this data, we can recommend the most beneficial footwear and insoles for each individual worker – keeping them comfortable and productive for longer!

DEVELOPING LOGO CONCEPTSTo further improve safety for Biffa workers, we’ve also developed the ‘DROPS’ (Driving Recklessly on Pavements) logo concept with Biffa, which has been adopted across the whole business. The aim of this project is to increase safety of employees by placing an easily visible camera logo on their PPE and Workwear, quickly notifying members of the public that Biffa employees are on film at all times. This lessens the chance of Biffa workers being subjected to unwanted behaviour.

In addition to enhancing safety for Biffa employees, Biffa have benefitted from ongoing price reduction on the camera logo to help support the initiative. Having taken 5,013 camera logoed items in 2017, Biffa have saved £14,036.40.

CONSISTENTLY PROVIDING VALUE THROUGH SMART STRATEGIESIt’s hard to sum up everything we do for Biffa in one case study. Having built a close, long-lasting relationship with Biffa over many years, Swift360 has added value in every way possible:

Being a total procurement solution, saving administration costs and helping Biffa achieve their corporate goals of rationalising suppliers.Constantly innovating products, maximising worker productivity and keeping Biffa ahead of their competition in the market.Holding dedicated stock, leading to minimised downtime.Carrying out Toolbox Talks, to provide Biffa personnel with the most up-to-date training available.Regular face-to-face site visits (over 200 in 2017) and PPE audits, to maintain strong relationships and gain actionable insight into site-specific needs.Improving cost in use products, ensuring value for money on every £ spent.A dedicated team looking after the Biffa account, with consistent attention to detail and a willingness to learn from challenges faced and improve together.THE RESULTSThese developments have been key in helping Biffa achieve a record rating of 97.59% in the British Safety Council’s SHEQ audit, and receive the prestigious Sword of Honour for health and safety excellence award. Biffa is one of just 56 organisations worldwide - and the very first in the waste sector - that have achieved this accolade in health and safety.

Additionally, after switching to Swift360 as sole supplier, Biffa reported 18% savings per annum. Our move to consolidated invoices saved Biffa processing 12,000 invoices across a single calendar year and resulted in just 10 invoices per month for all of Biffa’s PPE and Workwear across the country.

Due to our high quality of service, Biffa re-signed their contract with Swift360 for a further 5 years in May 2017.