Corporate Vision Issue 5

12 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 5 2018 , The east coast of England fromEast Yorkshire down through Lincolnshire and into East Anglia is themain food producing region of theUK. This is based on a strong agriculture sector founded on vegetables, pig and poultry and all the products derived fromandfish landed at Grimsby. Based inDriffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, specialist food testing laboratory is ideally located to service the northern two thirds of this region. Personal but Professional Approach is a Winner Northern Hygiene Laboratories Ltd evolved from the food testing work being carried out by a Driffield based specialist poultry veterinary practice that needed to rid itself of the of the rigid shackles the placed veterinary practices in terms of marketing and promotional activities at that time. In the 1980s early clients included Kitchens of Sara Lee and Twydale Turkeys - two companies long gone from the Yorkshire food scene. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Northern Hygiene’s reputation and workload grew by word of mouth but it retained the links to the poultry sector through the veterinary practice. At the same time the range of tests it provided grew at they became NAMAS (now UKAS) accredited and then M&S, Tesco and Defra approved. The first two of these approvals effectively made Northern Hygiene an approved laboratory for suppliers of the two supermarkets, while the third one meant they could undertake the statutory testing that the poultry industry was and still to a large extent is subjected to following the ‘salmonella in eggs’ saga and the statutory testing of animal by- products. In the mid-1980s Northern Hygiene moved into purpose built laboratories in Driffield and started to collect samples in its own refrigerated vans. These vans now collect samples from a region bounded by the Wash in the south, Manchester in the west and Newcastle in the north. In addition to their vans and clients bringing their own samples to the laboratory, an increasing number of samples now come through the post or by courier. Today the company offers a comprehensive range of microbiological tests for use in ingredient, end product, WIP and shelf-life testing. Methods used are based on traditional testing and ELISAmethodologies. ‘We pride ourselves on getting reports to the customer in an easy to read and understand format as quickly as possible”, founder and managing director, Nigel Horrox told us, “We now operate a traceability system for samples being tested based on bar coding, the penultimate stage of which allows larger clients to remotely access their on-going test results on line”. Most of the testing undertaken at Northern Hygiene is of a routine monitoring nature. Four senior members of the team have over 60 years of experience between 1804CV34 them, and are on hand to provide customers with advice and guidance. This is appreciated by SME and start-up businesses, of which there is an ever increasing number, who suddenly find that they need to test products as a result of ‘an inspector calling’ or to meet the requirements of a new customer. “Our overall mission”, customer services manager, Sally told us, “is encapsulated in our company motto of ‘Professional but Personal’ - in that we are technically very professional in that everything we do is adhering to our strict SOPs, and we are personal in that we are always happy to help our customers, guiding them through what they often see as ‘the minefield of food microbiology’! “It is probably this personal approach that differentiates us from our competitors who see price as being central to and the core to their philosophy. Yes, price is important, but we must never lose sight of the fact that our customers are people!” concluded Sally. Northern Hygiene’s interest in people does not stop with the customer – it also is very evident in the flexibility in working hours necessitated by most of the samples not arriving at the laboratory until the afternoon. This, for example, the company has some positions where the hours are ideal for working mums. The company also employs sixth formers from the local school to help out at weekends. Some of these go on to university with a solid grounding in laboratory methods, whilst others join the laboratory team full time when they leave school. This is beneficial for the company in that it has a good knowledge of the person they are employing. As far as the future is concerned, Nigel’s view is people will always eat and will want to be reassured that what they eat is safe, wholesome and nutritious. Whether that requires laboratory testing or not will depend on if and when anybody can develop the technology to provide instant microbiological results on the food production line. Even if they can, it will be expensive and out of the reach of the smaller food producers and processors. That being the case, and since that is where Northern Hygiene’s Professional but Personal philosophy is well received, they view the future positively but challenging.