The UK's leading supplier of personal protection equipment and workplace safety products, Arco, has won an award for the second year running at the Mail Publications Business Awards. Three companies were short listed for the Contribution to the Community Award and Arco came out on top.
In the last year Arco and its people have supported 200 charities, raised £10,000 for Macmillan, provided 250 hours of volunteer time to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, given £1,700 a month to good causes through Give As You Earn, provided 300 hours of mentoring to school children in Hull through the Children's University and 320 hours of English language training to those who don't have English as their first language at the National Distribution Centre. This company gives two days a year paid leave to each of their people who volunteer to work with the community or a charity.
Hull-based Arco was presented the award by its local daily newspaper, the Hull Daily Mail, at a glittering gala dinner held at a top hotel in the city. The award, which recognises the company's contribution to the community, was collected by joint managing director, Jo Martin.
Arco has a long and proud history of responsible business practice and of commitment to the community. This is particularly true in relation to its home city of Hull where key decisions - such as the location and design of its National Distribution Centre - have been made with the community in mind. It's also true of the other 33 communities where Arco has a branch.
"It's a great honour for Arco to win this award and is public recognition of the contribution to the community all our people make. We have always believed that business can achieve its commercial aims and at the same time, make a contribution to the local community. Our people and our customers are drawn from our local communities and they expect us to be more than passive stakeholders," said Jo Martin, Joint Managing Director.
The company won this award for all its charitable work both in the UK and abroad. In China, Arco is involved in Project Hope. Last year, Arco invested in libraries in three schools in Xinjiang - the home province of the Manager of its Chinese office. This year, it made a further investment in the same three schools, fitting out a room in each with computer equipment to assist with learning.
In its home town of Hull and around its branch network, Arco has been involved in four main projects - The Children's University, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Live Music Now! and Humberside Police Lifestyle Project. The Children's University is an out-of-school hours literacy programme for primary school pupils aged 7-11 and year 7 pupils in secondary school. Last year Arco developed a four-week course, called "The Arco Experience" which shares what Arco does and in particular, what its commitment to trading ethically actually means.
In East Yorkshire, Arco has established a successful partnership with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust by getting teams of Arco people involved in environmental projects such as scrub clearing and path maintenance.
Over the last 3 years, Arco has sponsored the Awards ceremony for the Humberside Police Lifestyle Project and a member of staff has been on the judging panel. The Lifestyle project recognises and rewards young people involved in initiatives to improve their local communities. In the last year, 5000 school children have taken part in this project.
Live Music Now!, founded in 1977 by the late Yehudi Menuhin, sets out to fulfil two aims: to make high quality live music widely accessible and, to promote standards of excellence in young musicians and music leaders. This year Arco has supported twenty concerts in homes for the elderly in the North West and South East regions and over the last four years it has sponsored 80 concerts across the UK.
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