Silver to Gold – Spotlight on a Member, David Thornton

Silver to Gold – Spotlight on a Member, David Thornton

With more than 40 years of SME experience, David Thornton created the award-winning The Window Company (Contracts) Ltd in 2010.

He has been on the GGF Home Improvement Executive since 2016 and was elected Chair of this Executive Committee in 2017 when he was also elected onto the GGF Board. In 2018, his company became the first ever to attain Gold Level on the GGF’s GLASS Charter Health and Safety Merit Scheme. In this interview, David discusses the journey and bene ts of attaining GLASS Charter Gold.

How does it feel to be the first company to achieve Gold Standard in the GGF’S GLASS Charter Health and Safety Merit Scheme?

We’re very proud to be able to say that we were the first company to achieve Gold – it’s a tremendous achievement and a real accolade for the whole team. Gold is only awarded to those companies who can demonstrate that a health and safety culture is embedded right across the business and that the very highest standards are adhered to at every level. It definitely shows just how seriously we take our responsibility for our own workforce and to the homes and businesses that we work in.

What challenges did you face in your journey of achievement?

We already held the GLASS Charter Silver Level 3 when we went for the Gold Level so were already a long way down that journey. However, the biggest challenge we still had to overcome was to eliminate any risk to our fitters from climbing onto the roofs of our vans to retrieve ladders. We did that by working with a specialist provider to adapt a new pneumatic lifting and lowering mechanism for our ladders which enables them to be raised or lowered using just a pole. It took us some time to develop the adaption kit and positioning but it is proving really successful and could easily be rolled out to other installers around the UK.

Has it changed the way your employees work?

Aside from our new ladder mechanism, achieving Gold Level was all about identifying incremental improvements which together make a difference for our fitters. It prompted us to review every aspect of how we do things and to drill right down to make sure there were no areas we had overlooked. That has been a good exercise for all of us and not just for the management team responsible for health and safety.

How has it worked for your company and customers?

Health and safety is a key area of scrutiny for all our commercial customers so it’s a real commercial advantage for us to be able to prove that we have met the very highest industry standards. It gives our customers absolute confidence in our processes and disciplines and of course, also sends out a really good message to existing and potential staff about how we put their wellbeing at the heart of what we do.

In a nutshell, how would you sum up the GGF’s Glass Charter Merit Scheme?

Because it’s got the backing of the GGF, the scheme has got real credibility in the industry – It’s easy to access and provides a really useful, structured path to success. We have never just paid “lip service” to health and safety but even so, this scheme has involved people at all levels in the company and brought health and safety very much to the forefront of people’s minds. We would certainly recommend it to others.