North East gets REACH ambassador

London - REACHReady and NEPIC (North East Process Industry Cluster) have today announced that Phil Hollowood has been appointed as REACH Ambassador within Northeast England. The post is being funded by One North East, supported by NEPIC and delivered by REACHReady, a subsidiary business of the Chemical Industries Association dedicated to helping industry deal with REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation.

Under the scheme, which runs until 30 Nov, Hollowood - a chemical engineer who has held senior management and operational roles at James Robinson Ltd and, before that, Cyanamid - is to use his business experience to energise REACH awareness activity across all industry sectors within the region.

REACH will affect every manufacturing business that operates within or supplies into the EU, as well as any company that imports chemical substances or finished goods from outside of the EU. It has been estimated that it will cost businesses collectively upwards of Euro6bn and for many organisations it will be a business continuity issue.

Stan Higgins of NEPIC said “This is a really innovative approach by ONE North East to better understand the impact of Reach. We need to find out what is happening in all the important industrial section of the region so that we can respond to any support needs that companies may have. I hope that companies in this region will participate and cooperate with Phil Hollowood, our Reach Ambassador, so that we have a better understanding of their position with regards to this new regulation.”