COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Hudson and Knight
A sustainable future for fats and oils
company profile
A sustainable future for fats and oils Editorial: Tim Hands Production: Leslie Kemp For 60 years now Sime Darby Hudson and Knight has been helping to develop sustainable futures, through its comprehensive line of frying, baking and bulk products. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sime Darby Berhad, the world’s largest listed palm oil originator, and seeks to ensure a bright future for fats and oils through its blend of safety consciousness, innovation and sustainability.
Hudson and Knight, specialist in fats and oils, was brought into being in 1955 by the Lever brothers, in the port city of Durban. It has spent the intervening years committed to developing sustainable futures, with the company evolving from its origins as a cash business selling soap, cooking oil and white margarine to today’s position as an authority in specialised oils and fats, supplying food service and industrial food manufacturers. A major producer of fats and oils for the South African market, Sime Darby Hudson and Knight is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sime Darby Berhad, the world’s largest listed palm oil originator. The Sime Darby Group has a comprehensive range of business activities, and these
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are overseen in 19 countries by its 27,000 employees. In addition to its original plantations business, Sime Darby is also a major player in motor vehicle distribution, heavy equipment distribution, property development, engineering services and energy industries. Sime Darby Plantation is the plantation and agribusiness arm of the Sime Darby Group, and is involved in oil palm and rubber plantation management cultivation and downstream activities, agribusiness and food. It was the merger of Sime Darby Berhad, Golden Hope Plantations Berhad and Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad in 2007 that has seen Sime Darby Plantation establish itself as one of the world’s largest palm oil producers. Hudson and Knight’s product range is perhaps best
Hudson and Knight
characterised by two of its frying products – the Crispa Gold Premium and Crispa Palm brands, used extensively in the foodservice industry to prepare crispy and delicious fried foods. Renowned for its reliability, long frying life, consistency and great taste, both products are available in sunflower and palm oil variants, and can boast being triple refined to remove impurities, free of trans-fatty acids and cholesterol, and both halal and kosher. Its range also incorporates baking products, a category where Hudson and Knight again excels, spanning margarines, pastry fats and shortenings. Flex in particular, a general-purpose puff pastry margarine produced from a blend of palm oils, has been shown to be ideal for the manufacturing of puff pastry and pies. It has a unique formulation, which offers the
baker a cost-effective alternative for producing good quality product, while for those of a more savoury persuasion, the Breadcap innovation is a specialised shortening, designed specifically for use in industrial bakeries which produce bread, rolls, biscuits and premixes. The end of 2012 saw Hudson and Knight reinforce its long-recognised commitment to safety and risk management, with the implementation of ApplyIT’s IntelliPERMIT at its Boksburg facility, with the aim of improving compliance with safety regulations on site. The plant in question is a state-of-the-art refinery with flexible blending capabilities, used primarily in the production of premium bakery fats, frying oils and bulk industrial fats for the food manufacturing industry.
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company profile
A computerised permit-to-work system, IntelliPERMIT is designed to control how permits and isolations within an operating plant are prepared, authorised, issued and managed. In addition, the solution is able to ensure that compliance to safety procedures on any site is unfailingly assured, by checking that all safety precautions are adhered to and hazards correctly identified, as Hudson and Knight plant engineer Rodney Ndonyane explains, “If the integrity of a permit is in question, the risk of unsafe work practices increases.” Clearly, the high-pressure, large scale nature of Hudson and Knight’s operations means that such a risk of unsafe practice is absolutely unimaginable. Fortunately, its implementation of these measures has afforded a considerable improvement in what was already an exemplary awareness surrounding safety, as Ndonyane states, “IntelliPERMIT has raised the level of safety awareness and preparedness of every shift worker on site by providing detailed risk information and enforcing site safety rules. Communication has improved, correct information is passed from one shift to the next, and at any one time management can see what jobs are underway anywhere on the plant.
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“By eliminating incorrect job preparation procedures, we have significantly reduced the risk of accidents or nearmisses at the plant.”
“By eliminating incorrect job preparation procedures, we have significantly reduced the risk of accidents or nearmisses at the plant” This is undeniably a hazardous work environment, a feature simply unavoidable of any such successful, large-scale producer as this. Among the potential risks are high pressure steam lines, ammonia refrigeration, the hydrogenation plant and confined space entry, all of which necessitate tight controls and an identification of anything that may be lacking, before accidents can occur. This is IntelliPERMIT’s bread and butter, as it were, with the system specifically designed to identify
Hudson and Knight safety risks and ensure that personnel on site are correctly trained and equipped for their tasks. Permits, which allow access to the many tasks undertaken daily at these plants, are issued only when employees have been seen to be fully compliant with a comprehensive list of authorisations, with the necessary personal protective equipment and having implemented all the correct safety measures. This is an invaluable way in which management can delegate responsibilities in a manner not possible before, with safe work procedures and rules enforced and a high visibility of work in progress. Particularly for a company of such great influence, there is an ever-increasing focus today on the creation of sustainable supply lines and green practices - those which impact to the minimum degree possible on the environment. With this concern at the forefront of its collective mind, Sime Darby Hudson and Knight has partnered with Woolworths, in order to become the first palm oil supplier to be Round table of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified. The company has also, crucially, undertaken to support Woolworths in their journey, and as a result, seeks to encourage other oil companies to follow
in its forward-thinking footsteps. Gareth Thomas, Sales and Marketing Manager of Sime Darby Hudson and Knight, recognises the responsibility of such a large manufacturer with regard to this question of sustainability; “Consumer pressure in South Africa is becoming increasingly apparent when it comes to the sustainability of palm oil,” which neatly sums up the two principal aspects of this newly-penned commitment. With the popularity of Sime Darby Hudson and Knight’s wares increasing by the day, it is in the interests of both the environment, and the company itself, to show this level of dedication to the sustainability of these products. That the company has signed up to this vital commitment will result in the prevention of rainforest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia, and at the same time protect the habitats of some of our most beloved species, such as the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger. Crucially, it also means that Hudson and Knight’s products are guaranteed a place on supermarket shelves across the country for a long time yet, allowing the fats and oils specialist to continue to sculpt its sustainable futures across the African continent.
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+27 11 896 9203 www.hudsonandknight.co.za
(0)1603 618 000 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter Street. Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4QB