Circet is a global telecommunications company and pioneer in engineering, network rollout, installation and maintenance. With over 3,300 employees in the UK and Ireland to date and a multi-million euro turnover in sales, Circet is a big player in the telecoms industry. As a fast-growing industry with a constant demand for its services, the need for PPE and safety workwear for telecoms workers is often immediate; especially when the required safety workwear is Arc Flash Protection. When teams don’t have their kits, they can’t do their jobs, and this has an impact on the people living and working in areas that rely on these services.
When Circet divisions in Ireland and the UK first got in touch with us, they were struggling with a plethora of issues that needed to be fixed. The picture they painted was this one: their staff were either wearing shabby, old kit or not the right kit; they couldn’t start their projects on time because of this; and their CEO, who had witnessed this first-hand on a site visit, was adamant that they must re-kit their staff as soon as possible with arc flash PPE.
Unfortunately, re-kitting the staff wasn’t going to be as easy as the CEO imagined because Circet’s procurement process had its own set of issues. Multiple people were buying from multiple sources which meant that they were struggling to maintain control over who was buying PPE for staff members and what was being bought for staff members.
Throw in a whole kit rebrand and the result is, well, a headache!
That’s a big mountain to climb quickly.
Now, here’s a different way of looking at the issue:
Source of problem: lack of correct kit (arc flash protection) for their staff
The risks: unable to tell whether every employee on site was adequately protected against arc flash risks (such as injury/death) and the resulting claims and reputational damage.
The good news was that their teams had already discussed product specifications which meant that they already decided that they wanted to kit out their workers in high-quality arc-rated garments. The only thing left to decide on that front was, which manufacturer to select, and which supplier could meet their demand.
LION are experts in safety workwear with over 30 years of experience. We’ve been actively supplying Arc Flash protection to teams that need it for 5 years. We work closely with our trusted partners, ProGARM, to help educate prospects and ensure we are always working with the facts when it comes to arc flash protection. ProGARM are industry leaders in arc flash protection and manufacturers of premium quality garments that are innovatively designed to be comfortable, lightweight and well-fitting while keeping the wearer safe.
We suggested ProGARM would be a great fit as a manufacturer for them for the following reasons:
- Premium arc-rated workwear
- Product availability to meet their high demand
- Experts in Arc Flash protection
How we helped Circet solve their re-kit problems
LION fixed Circet’s problems in 3 stages:
Stage 1: Initial arc flash protection kit-out with ProGARM
Stage 2: Replacement/new-start arc flash kit-outs with ProGARM
Stage 3: Fully stocked, branded portfolio of arc flash PPE as well as other workwear and safety products to enable next-day delivery
Stage 1:
The initial kit-out was for 250 workers. They needed a full re-kit in arc flash clothing, head to toe.
The full set was:
- ProGARM 5290 Arc Flash Polo Shirt (Orange Hi-Vis)
- ProGARM 5648 Arc Flash Sweatshirt (Orange Hi-Vis)
- ProGARM 4616 Arc Flash Trouser (Orange Hi-Vis)
- ProGARM 9140 Arc Flash Unlined Waterproof Jacket (Orange Hi-Vis)
- ProGARM 9144 Arc Flash Unlined Waterproof Dungaree (Orange Hi-Vis)
- V12 Caiman Safety Boots – V1510
We packed all the kits into individual kit bags, ready for instant use.
These items were fully branded and shipped in personnel packs to one central address.
The full arc flash kit-out was for 250 wearers, and we rolled this out across 6 weeks. The first orders were delivered after 2 weeks, and now ongoing deliveries are delivered the next working day.
Stage 2:
The next orders were to come in on a replacement only or a new-start basis. With a stock-holding agreement in place, we hold enough branded stock to last 1 month of Circet’s usage, which means any orders placed by Circet are shipped and delivered on a next-day basis.
Stage 3:
This stage was in the background while the other two were taking centre stage. We worked with Circet to build up a picture of the weekly and monthly usage of the products – this would be a combination of new kits for existing employees, and new start employees for the contracts Circet were delivering.
Once we had this forecast usage, we worked with our partners at ProGARM to consolidate our buying methods. We place 8-weekly stock orders, to be branded, and transferred to our warehouse for storage. We shared the forecast figures with ProGARM so that they also knew what level of product usage to expect.
This then allowed orders to be dispatched on next-day delivery, with branded stock always available.
A note from LION
“We are very excited to be working with Circet and saving them time and money over the long term. Circet is a very fast-paced client, they need stuff done, targets hit and to move forward and it’s great to form such a powerful working partnership with the team and the company”. – Ralph Lewis, Client Director at Lion Safety.
Our next steps with Circet:
We have a clear path ahead of us with Circet.
Our next steps are:
- Roll out of LION online ordering portal to save time ordering, streamline the ordering process and allow leadership to get further control and visual on daily/weekly/monthly spend
- Working on further savings on more product categories, including workwear, traffic management and safety tools
- Producing a rolling 12-month projection plan to deliver on agreed mutual targets, consolidate products used and rationalise spend
Do you need our help? Here’s what to do next:
1.- If you can relate to Circet’s story and think you need Arc Flash Protection but are unsure where to start, these are the next two pieces of content you should read:
2.- Book a discovery call!
The first call is a great opportunity to know more about you, your company requirements and necessities.
Remember, every demanding infrastructure company needs great industrial workwear and equipment supplies and we are here to help you to
- Stop wasting money on buying tactics and suppliers that don’t work.
We will support you with our proven delivery method, world-class customer service, and immersive product support to elevate your infrastructure projects and compel company-wide buy-in to one supply program.
Our goal is to help you to Get the Job Done Right.
