Universal Products

The Lomas Lounge is set up in memory of a True Gentleman

UPL has a number of formal meeting rooms, but we recently decided to establish a smaller and less formal meeting room that would provide a more relaxed environment for certain types of meetings.

Our new meeting room has been furnished with comfortable armchairs and a coffee table as opposed to the traditional furnishing of a large meeting table and upright chairs. This has proven to be an extremely effective alternative to the formal meeting environment.

We have decided to name the meeting room The Lomas Lounge in memory of a very valued colleague – Paul Lomas – who sadly and suddenly passed away 7 years ago. This is one way we can honour and remember an ex colleague who was liked and loved by everyone who worked with him. For those of you who did not have the pleasure of knowing Paul, he was a big man with a big character, a big smile and a true gentleman.

UPL Strengthens its Focus on Quality

UPL has appointed a new and very experienced QA Manager to reinforce our commitment to ‘Quality’ across the business.

Chris Rotheram has joined the management team as QA Manager and he is also a Qualified Person which further strengthens our QP coverage for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products.

Chris joined us directly from Lofthouse of Fleetwood Ltd (Manufacturers of Fisherman’s Friend). He joined them back in 1977 as a 16 year old Lab Assistant in their QC Lab. After many years of part time study he achieved Chartered Chemist status and in 1998 he became eligible to act as a Qualified Person. Throughout his time with Lofthouse he undertook several roles in QC, QA and IT.

At UPL his role is that of QA Manager / Qualified Person, but on the personal front he is a ‘local lad’ – born in Fleetwood and lived in Cleveleys all his life. Chris is married to a District Nurse and they recently celebrated their silver wedding. Both their son and daughter are studying at university.

We are delighted to welcome Chris to the UPL team and wish him every success in his new role.

UPL Rewards Hard Working Employees

Congratulations to Iqram Patel on winning a 2 night stay (dinner, bed and breakfast) at the Old England Hotel in Windermere. Iqram won this prize in a draw that was held exclusively as a reward for UPL employees who had 100% attendance over the previous 12 months.

We also rewarded the 16% of employees who had 2 years or more continuous attendance with an extra days holiday to acknowledge their commitment and hard work. Congratulations and thank you to you all for your 100% commitment.

UPL continues its strong record of workplace safety

Congratulations to all of UPL’s employees as we reach the new benchmark of 600 days without any accidents in the workplace.

The last ‘Lost Time Accident’ took place over 600 days ago and that is great news for the company as it means we remain as one of the safest manufacturing companies within the North West.

Thanks to everyone for staying safe, there is still a lot of work to do to ensure we keep improving, but this figure reflects the hard work by everyone at UPL to reduce our accident & incident rates.

UPL is proud of its loyal and committed team

UPL recently held their annual long service awards to acknowledge and reward its most loyal and long serving employees. We are very proud that over 64% of our team has been with UPL for 5 years or more, and as a company is only as good as the people within it, we are very fortunate to have such a loyal a committed team.

We give a bonus to employees as they achieve each multiple of 5 years with the company and the list at the end of this page shows all those who were acknowledged in the recent awards ceremony.

However, a special mention goes to the following people who have been with UPL for 20 years: Barry Thornber, Sue Hardman, Jason Thompson, Amanda Minshull and Keith Voyle, and a particular thank you goes to Joanne Senior with 25 years service and Ian de Havilland with 30 years service to UPL.

Thank you to you all for your dedication and hard work.

A word of thanks for two special employees

A personal message of thanks from Mike Peters, Managing Director:

“It was with the greatest pleasure at the recent Long Service Awards, that I presented awards to Ian DeHavilland and Joanne Senior in recognition of their thirty years and twenty five years service at UPL.

Ian joined us in 1981, when we had very few employees. He actually approached us for a job, and I could see that he was keen and willing to perform the variety of roles that the company needed at the time. First jobs were loading shipping containers and making shipping crates. Ian progressed to production, and successfully installed our first ever filling line in Lytham. He has performed most of the duties and tasks that there are at UPL, and risen to every challenge that UPL and our customers have given him. Thirty years on, Ian is an Associate Director.

In 1986 I interviewed Joanne. She had applied for a job in the packing department, but in actual fact did not intend to stay for long – but twenty five years later she is now a Director of UPL. Joanne progressed from the production line, to being a supervisor, and then moved on to set up our first micro lab. She has played a major role in UPL’s continued development and has a first class reputation throughout our industry.

Their continued enthusiasm and commitment for all things UPL belies their combined service of fifty five years, and they have, and continue to make a huge contribution and have a positive influence across the business.

Having done a quick calculation, Ian and Joanne have presided over the manufacture of circa 81 million litres of product, and the filling of nearly 900 million (900,000,000!) products.

I would like to offer my congratulations to them both, and very sincerely thank them for the part they have played and their continued loyalty and dedication to UPL.

There are therefore, opportunities for talent, intelligence, hard work and commitment to the UPL cause. And, although there are good times and tough times, UPL folk stick together.

I consider myself fortunate to work with two such people.

Thank you both.”

Mike Peters