MEMIC honors ten employers for outstanding workplace safety

PORTLAND, Maine, July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- At the MEMIC Annual Meeting of the Policyholders, workers' compensation insurer The MEMIC Group presented awards for workplace safety to ten of its more than 20,000 policyholders.

At the Portland Museum of Art, MEMIC's senior vice president of loss control and safety services, Karl Siegfried, paid tribute to the following employers for their workplace safety efforts:

• First National Bank of Damariscotta, Maine
• Giovanni Food Co., Inc. of Syracuse, New York
• Good Shepherd Food Bank of Auburn, Maine
• InterMed, P.A. of Portland, Maine
• Lumbra Hardwoods, Inc. of Milo, Maine
• Ridgewood Estates, LLC of Madawaska, Maine
• St. Paul's School of Concord, New Hampshire
• Ultrafab, Inc. of Farmington, New York
• Watson, Inc. of West Haven, Connecticut
• WWRD US, LLC of Wall Township, New Jersey

"As we traveled throughout the Eastern U.S. presenting these safety awards," said Siegfried, "I was struck by how alike the company cultures are in spite of how diverse the work they do is. Every safety award winner talks about and treats their employees like they are family, with tremendous passion for what they do and compassion for who they work with."

Click here to watch videos of the MEMIC safety award winners.

The awardees include:

First National Bank of Damariscotta, Maine
First National Bank (formerly The First), a publicly held Maine-based commercial bank, was established in 1864, and with 16 offices from Wiscasset to Calais and now Bangor, today serves several of the fastest-growing counties in the State of Maine. "Their investment in workstation ergonomics and workplace safety has really paid off," says MEMIC's Chief Ergonomist Allan Brown, "They had no lost time injury claims last year."

Giovanni Food Co., Inc. of Syracuse, New York
Giovanni Food Co., Inc. is a third generation family business and leading manufacturer of retail and institutional tomato-based products. They maintain the highest certifications in the industry, including QAI certification to manufacture organic products and SQF Level 2 certification (ongoing) in recognition of food safety programs. Vice President of Operations Tim Budd says money saved through safety "gets turned back into the facility for capital projects so we can improve not only safety, but quality and efficiency." The company began investments in its "food forward" approach in 2014 and over the last 18 months has seen $20 million in growth and no lost time injury claims.

Good Shepherd Food Bank of Auburn, Maine
Good Shepherd Food Bank solicits, secures, collects and distributes food for hundreds of food pantries, meal sites, senior centers, schools and other community programs throughout all 16 counties in Maine every day. Just this past year, they distributed more than 17.5 million meals to Mainers in need through their network of local partner agencies, feeding and nourishing 178,000 of Maine's neediest without a single lost time injury claim. "We've created new workstations throughout all our buildings," says Vice President of Operations Sam Michaud, "throughout all our warehouses, so that we are not injuring staff. We use MEMIC to help us with ergonomic evaluations when we do these changes and we really put a lot more energy into thinking ahead of time."

InterMed, P.A. of Portland, Maine
InterMed, P.A. is a physician-owned medical group founded on the goals of patient centered primary care that is enhanced by integrated specialty services including cardiology; dermatology; family medicine; ear, nose and throat; infectious disease; internal medicine; OB/GYN; pediatrics; physical therapy; and sports medicine. "InterMed is a progressive organization that possesses a continuous improvement philosophy," says MEMIC Safety Management Consultant Greg LaRochelle. "They embrace safety as a value and have created a comprehensive health and safety management system that includes emergency preparedness and response, ergonomics, hazard communication, infectious disease control, lab safety and workplace violence prevention."

Lumbra Hardwoods, Inc. of Milo, Maine
Lubmra Hardwoods, Inc., a third generation family-owned and operated hardwood lumber manufacturing plant, was established in 1952 by father and son partners, Oscar Lumbra and Reuben Lumbra. They produce 7.5 million feet of hardwood lumber annually to a customer base that includes manufacturers of cabinets, flooring, stairways, furniture, architectural mill work, molding, musical instruments, railroad ties, industrial lumber, pallets and boxes. "The owners are directly involved with day-to-day operations," says MEMIC Safety Management Consultant Hartley Webb, "and participate in all aspects of safety including ongoing evaluation of mill housekeeping, machine guarding and control of hazardous energy. They've really cultivated strong employee involvement with company safety efforts, we have a great relationship with the employees of the safety committee and last year they had no lost time injury claims."

Ridgewood Estates, LLC of Madawaska, Maine
Ridgewood Estates, LLC, a 43-bed residential care facility, and the 45-bed CrossWinds are located in the scenic St. John River Valley and owned and operated by the Roy Family, offering residential care services since 1980. "The key to our success," says Administrator Cathy Roy, "has been getting the staff to report injuries as fast as they can, so that we can intervene as fast as we can. We offer them light duty based on the doctor's recommendation so they are able to continue to work and can transition back into their regular duties."

St. Paul's School of Concord, New Hampshire
St. Paul's School is a co-educational, fully residential high school of approximately 525 students from all over the world founded in 1856. "What we're really doing is providing a safe place for young men and women to go to school and to learn," says EHS Manager Tim McGinley. "We have an executive risk committee that meets every other month and they're engaged, they're active and they participate. That's at the highest level of the organization on down. It's very rewarding and quite frankly it makes my job a whole lot easier to know that from the top down there's support and participation in the risk management environment here."

Ultrafab, Inc. of Farmington, New York
Ultrafab, Inc. is a premier manufacturer of pile and extruded weather stripping products for the window and door industry, as well as specialty brush and seal components for office and industrial equipment and the medical and transportation industries. "If you are watching out for each other, if you are using behavioral based safety training, you are going to get people focused on doing the right thing and doing it the right way every time," says CFO Tom Hare. "We start every one of our meetings with safety first, quality second. And the production will come if you have those other two."

Watson, Inc. of West Haven, Connecticut
Watson, Inc. is a third generation family owned company and leader in developing quality products and ingredient systems for the food and supplement industries with expertise in microencapsulation, agglomeration, micronizing, spray drying, and film technology. "One of the reasons we exist," says President James Watson, "is to provide a better life and opportunities for our people and the families of people that work here, and part of that is providing a safe work environment. So safety is very important to us."

WWRD US, LLC of Wall Township, New Jersey
WWRD US, LLC offers luxury home goods such as crystal table wares and collectibles through its Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton and Royal Albert brands. "The key is the employee," says Director of Operations Chris Sundback. "It's making sure the employee comes to work and then goes home safely to their families at night."

About MEMIC
The MEMIC Group includes MEMIC Indemnity Company, MEMIC Casualty Company, and parent company Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company; all rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best. As a super-regional workers' compensation specialty insurer, The MEMIC Group holds licenses to write workers' compensation in 46 states plus the District of Columbia. The group insures more than 20,000 employers and their estimated 300,000 employees, and holds more than $1 billion in assets. The group maintains offices in Manchester, NH; Glastonbury, CT; Albany, NY; Weehawken, NJ; West Conshohocken, PA; Tysons Corner, VA; and Tampa, FL; in addition to its headquarters in Portland, ME.

Contact: Michael Bourque, SVP, External Affairs, MEMIC
207.791.3314 | [email protected]  

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