An award-winning paper mill in Flintshire has recorded more than 2,000 days without a single reportable workplace accident.
The Essity Oakenholt paper mill, which produces high-quality paper for the global hygiene and health company’s popular brands, including Cushelle, Tork and Plenty, has recorded over 2,060 consecutive days without a serious accident.
This equates to more than five and a half years or more than 49,000 hours and marks a significant milestone for one of North Wales’ major manufacturing sites. According to Health and Safety Executive data, manufacturing continues to have one of the highest rates of workplace injury in the UK.
Graham Nutter, safety specialist at Essity Oakenholt, said:
“Achieving this major milestone reflects the innovative approach and commitment to health and safety of everyone at our Oakenholt site. To go this long without a reportable accident in a high-paced, complex environment like ours positions Essity as an exemplar for the industry. Nothing is more important than making it home safely at the end of every day.”
The Oakenholt site’s strong safety culture has been underpinned by a series of targeted initiatives, including a recent campaign which saw children of employees star in a short film. Opening with a young girl speaking Welsh and using British Sign Language, the safety video reinforces key safety procedures, such as removing jewellery, wearing PPE, and responding to alarms, for both employees and visitors of the site. It goes on to end with a simple but powerful message: these rules exist to keep mums, dads, and grandparents safe.
The concept was developed on-site to cut through routine messaging and make safety more personal. It recently won the gold award for health & safety at the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) Gold Awards and has been widely praised by staff for making the guidelines more memorable and meaningful, while boosting morale and reinforcing the site’s close-knit culture.
Essity’s Oakenholt mill also won an internal health and safety award and the Team of the Year award in May 2025 in competition with all other Essity manufacturing sites throughout Europe.
The Oakenholt site has been recorded as a paper mill dating back to 1875.
