GROWING FROM THE CORE: 1970-2000
For Sonoco, safety is a cornerstone of our growth as a global company—and one reason we ranked first on Fortune’s list of World’s Most Admired Companies in 2022.
We’ve seen that priority pay off with our teams in Europe and Asia. In those regions, Sonoco has increased our efforts to make sure that our workplace processes uphold safety standards everywhere we work.
That emphasis grows from our deep history and generations of experience in a business involving the use of heavy machinery in a paper mill—and the constant risk of severe workplace accidents.
“Safety of employees, I think, is the single most important thing that a manager needs to keep in the front of his mind,” says former CEO Harris DeLoach. Whenever Harris visited Sonoco facilities around the world, he says, safety was a top priority. Whether he was visiting a plant in Denmark or in China, he would connect with staff around safety. Even speaking through an interpreter, he made sure the safety message got through.
“We’re going to do safety differently, and that’s what it’s all about,” says Rodger Fuller, Chief Operating Officer. Fuller explains that safety is key to loss prevention, a core pillar of Sonoco’s strategy for managing risk. “Employee training and safety programs, for example, eliminate risks,” he says, and adds that ultimately, safety and risk management require commitment and attention from senior leadership.
That rings true for Alvaro Razquin Garmendia, General Manager & Vice President, Global Paper Products, in Sonoco’s Asian Pacific (APAC) region. He notes that shop floor employees’ engagement in all aspects of operations has helped create safer working conditions. In 2020, Alvaro’s division launched the Making Paper Safely program in all our paper mill plants, which he hailed as “a tremendous effort” by the whole team.
Another example of how we walk the walk when it comes to safety: automating tedious work. “We have spent tens of millions of dollars in the last two years to automate threading,” a process that previously required hand-feeding paper into rollers, says Matt Moore, VP of Global Talent Management and Safety. “It will protect generations of paper makers.”
We’re looking ahead to make a safer workplace for present and future workers. That’s the Sonoco way.