Celebrity ‘whirlwind’ hits FM show – much pride damaged

01 November 2011

Facilities management is fun! Ask the dozens of would-be pool champions who took on ‘Whirlwind’ Jimmy White at the Total Workplace Management event at Olympia. Jimmy, one of the country’s best loved sportsmen, was helping NGS – Britain’s biggest marine salt importer – launch their new brand of de-icing salt called, appropriately, Pure White*.

Jimmy White and PFM's publisher, Peter Middup

It was not just an attention-grabbing promotion for NGS: Jimmy’s warmth, friendliness and ready smiles and handshakes, was a boost for the whole industry and brightened up what could have been a solemn and serious review of facilities management.

However, Jimmy’s showcase pool matches against queues of visitors and exhibitors were not all one-sided, and those skilful enough to beat the flashing cue of the Whirlwind were given a signed copy of his autobiography. Jimmy did not have to do much signing!

Salt suppliers and private gritting contractor NGS continues to grow. From small beginnings as contractors covering the south and south-east, the company now runs a fleet gritter lorries, salt spreaders and snowploughs, and has a salt stockholding capability of 500,000 tons at Southampton Docks – a veritable mountain of white salt to prevent the much publicised ‘Britain running out of salt’ cries of the last two winters.

Facilities managers need salt. It is not just a safety issue, although the Health and Safety Executive calls for a responsible duty of care to protect employees and visitors from slipping on icy surfaces; it is also economically important. Premises closed because of winter weather, and staff being injured and off work, mean that the workers, to coin a pun, are not earning their salt.

NGS continues to operate a nationwide gritting and snow clearance operation and has also expanded to offer a guaranteed salt supply service for customers of all sizes.
At the high bulk end of the service customers include the Highways Agency, the National Assembly for Wales and their contractors, as well as councils and private contractors nationwide. Facilities managers probably do not need thousands of tons of salt delivered in bulk, and NGS has established a logistics operation to supply loads of all sizes down to 20kg and the new Pure White* range that starts at 10kg in easy to carry bags.

The Pure White* range brings high quality, fast acting, de-icing salt to the public in packaging designed to show its practicality and also allow easy and effective spreading. Packages include the 10kg carry bag, and easy-spread 3kg containers down to small 600gm packs. A 10kg bag of Pure White*, when easily spread at a rate of 10gm², will treat 1,000m². Even at a spread rate of 40gm², it will cover 250m².

“Pure White* is a very efficient way of treating icy surfaces or preventing ice from forming,” says Tony Lynam, NGS Head of Retail. “The lack of impurities not only means that it stores well, and is 100% sustainable, natural, safe and clean, but it is very effective when used in lower quantities – much more effective than brown rock salt. Pure White* does not stain carpets in offices and homes: it remains on the surface where it is working and is not carried in as mud on shoes and boots. ‘Don’t slip up this year’ is our clear message to the public.”
Some years ago, concerned that they may not be able to maintain salt supplies for their private gritting customers, NGS decided to import marine salt. As a result the company was able to guarantee supplies to their customers and sell extra salt to new customers. This has proved the basis for the NGS promise: ‘We will never let a customer down.’

www.ngs.co.uk