New: Breakthrough for Brewery Owners 

Smiling Samoyed Brewery 

Kate Henning 

Improving safety was the goal of implementing BREWSafe. There had not been any particular safety related incident and Kate believes the overall safety and focus were quite good already. They had a culture of always looking to improve safety at every opportunity, hence the implementation of BREWSafe. Kate mentioned that having all the documents in one folder was handy and Victual had highlighted quite clearly what needed to be done around safety, such as installing a better ladder to the fermenter.

Kate thought the recommendations made by Victual were not aimed at an unrealistic spend but were aimed at things that could be done quickly and at low cost.

Prancing Pony

Frank Samson

Frank had worked for major companies who had very sophisticated safety strategies and measures. His goal in implementing the BrewSafe program was to ensure he had the proper safety measures in place. Although he had a good idea of what needed to be done it seemed many times to be put on the back burner because everyone was busy doing other things.

Since implementing the BrewSafe system Frank commented that the staff are very happy with the changes and knowing that their safety is a focus. One of the things identified was working on ladders and carrying materials on ladders. They made the decision to move two tanks to allow room for a forklift to go between them and now people are raised within a cage on the forklift, this has been a big winner for the staff for a low cost. Frank commented that safety is an ongoing focus and the IBA Safe program will ensure its never put back on the to do list.

Sydney Rocks Brewery

Simon Osborn

Simon has become actively involved in the Brewery after beginning as a silent partner. After 28 years in McDonald's he has been well drilled in safety and firmly believes that every dollar spent on safety pays itself back many times over and then some. As a point in case working with Victual and IBASafe has seen his annual premiums on Workers Compensation more than halved.

The first onsite inspection after becoming an IBASafe partner revealed some immediate changes were needed. Even low-cost items like signs for the forklift and purchasing hi-visibility vests. There were also some areas to find solutions such as working at height on ladders 4 –5 metres of the ground in a wet environment. Probably the biggest change is that safety is now the first point of discussions at the weekly Monday morning meeting and Simon installs a culture that safety is about everyone taking responsibility for themselves and for others.

Simon is working with Victual and BrewSafe to be on a continuous path of improvement with the next step of having a GPS monitor trail on workers to get some data on lifting and loads.

Stay tuned.

Endeavor Breweries

Mark Cowie

Endeavour Breweries did not have a defining moment to implement the BrewSafe program. The owner, Ben Kooyman decided it was the opportune time to implement a thorough and disciplined approach to all of our operations to ensure we minimised all risk and maximised the safety of all of our team. General Manager, Mark Cowie said although they did not have any glaring holes in their safety processes but what the program has done is formalise the process and created a disciplined approach. The documents and manual spell out clearly what needs to be done. Being a small microbrewery there are not the same challenges as larger brewers but what level of risk is accepted as normal is always a challenge without clear guidelines. Since implementing BrewSafe, Mark has seen the focus on safety become company wide rather than just the focus of a small group. The team have acknowledged the commitment and focus to safety by the company.

Stone & Wood

Richard Crowe

Being a larger brewer Stone and Wood in Byron Bay already had quite intensive safety systems and processes in place.

There was no defining moment or event to suddenly become part of BrewSafe program but Richard said that although from a safety point of view they were starting from a fairly advanced place, what Victual brought through BrewSafe was a clear validation of what was already in place as well as picking up some new and valuable ways to reduce risk.

Having the BrewSafe process in place with the manuals, templates and forms also gave confidence that Stone & Wood were on the right track to identifying and reducing the risk for employees and visitors.

Brouhaha

Matt Jancauskas

Matt said that compliance and safety had been on his mind for a long time and then one day it dawned that it was about time to do something about it. Matt commented that as the business grew it become harder and harder to find the time to continually assess and improve safety. There were no major incidents that led to taking some action just a growing overall feeling that better to do something now before something happens rather than after.

Matt found the online training a big winner for staff and now has peace of mind with all the documents and process in the one place in the BrewSafe manual. Although Matt regarded his workplace as safe, he was also aware that proving he had a process in place in the event of an incident could well be a different matter with unforeseen outcomes, happy to now be protected, in Matt’s words BrewSafe was a no brainer.