Manufacturer gains national recognition

A North East specialist plastics manufacturer has earned national recognition from the skills sector organisation, Cogent.

Stanley-based Sone Products (SONE), suppliers of application and dispensing solutions, has recently achieved Cogent’s Gold Standard and is reportedly only the second company in the region to do so.

The company joins Azko Nobel, BASF, British Sugar and Fujifilm as holders of the award.

Government-funded Cogent is the Skills Sector Council (SSC) for the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear, life sciences, petroleum, and polymer industries.

Its aim is to help employers in these industries to address their workforce development needs and improve their competitiveness.

The process of gaining the award starts with a company benchmarking its manufacturing team’s skills against that of Cogent’s Gold Standard. This serves to identify any skills gaps from which a development plan can be drawn up.

In this case, the exercise served to prove SONE met or exceeded the standard.

Trevor Siddoway, SONE’s commercial manager said: “This is great news for the company and its workforce. When undertaking the benchmark exercise, I was confident we were already ahead of the game when it came to training and developing our people.

“However, to received a resounding thumbs up and get the Gold Standard at the first attempt is marvellous.”

He added: “As we continue to operate in a global market, recognition of this type sets SONE apart from its competitors and reinforces the message that when working with us you are guaranteed the industry’s best will be at your disposal.”

Cogent’s polymer lead manager, Daniel Freckingham said: “It’s great to see such genuine commitment to both skills and the employees at SONE and hugely interesting for me to see how many core competencies are being covered.”