MARCH 2015

Our cement plant has been part of the south Wales community for over 100 years. We are the only cement works in south Wales and our cement has been used to build some of Wales’ most significant construction projects of recent times, including Pembroke Power Station, The Millennium Centre and The Senydd, home of the Welsh Government.

We are near to completing our latest investment programme to maintain and improve the plant, which will help secure the existing 83 jobs at the plant and also

help us create new jobs. This £2 million investment shows that Lafarge Tarmac is committed to continuing to be an important local employer and contributor to the local economy.

In this issue you can find out more about what we do on site and how we try to be good neighbours and active members of the local community. We’re planning lots of new initiatives, including visits to primary and secondary schools to talk about how cement is made and what jobs and careers are available in the cement industry.

If there is anything that you would like to contact us about, there are lots of ways that you can get in touch – and we’d love to hear from you. If you are interested in visiting the site, please let us know and we can consider having a site open day.

Chris Bradbury, Plant Manager

ABERTHAW LAFARGE TARMAC IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY

Corporate news

It has been announced that CRH plc has agreed to buy the assets being sold by Lafarge and Holcim, including Lafarge Tarmac with the exception of the Cauldon cement plant. CRH is a well-known industrial company with a solid track record. The sale is subject to the successful completion of the Lafarge Holcim merger and regulatory approvals. This process is expected to complete by the end of June.

Welcome to the first edition of Focus On for 2015. I’m Chris Bradbury, the new Plant Manager for the Aberthaw Cement Plant. I hope that this newsletter will help you to get to know us a lot better, and tell you a bit more about what we do on site.

Pic: Aberthaw Plant Manager, Chris Bradbury

GET IN TOUCH Visit lafargetarmac.com/Aberthaw-plant Email aberthaw.feedback@lafargetarmac.com Tel 01446 752300 Twitter @AberthawCement

FOCUS ON ABERTHAW LAFARGE TARMAC IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY

Keeping ourdoors open

This year so far, we have hosted visits from two local political representatives from the Vale of Glamorgan, and we have shown them what we are doing on site, and how we are planning for the future.

Our first visitor was Mr Andrew RT Davies AM, leader of the Welsh Conservatives and regional Assembly Member, who wanted to understand more about the economic and community benefits of the Plant to his local constituency.

We showed Mr Davies around the plant and explained how we are committed to being a sustainable business and are on target to achieve more than 30 per cent

of fuel for our kiln from alternative sources such as tyres and municipal waste.

Mr Andrew RT Davies AM said, “Lafarge Tarmac’s Aberthaw Cement works is a superb example of a strong local manufacturing company delivering for not only the employees but the local community.”

We’ve also been visited by Ms Jane Hutt, Vale of Glamorgan Assembly Member and Minister for Finance and Welsh Government Business. We showed Ms Hutt our new £750,000 packaging plant that is enabling us to increase the amount of cement that we can produce and package at the plant. By having the new packaging plant, we have also created two new local jobs.

Commenting on her visit, Ms Hutt, said, “It was very helpful indeed to have an update on the investments that are being made to modernise this important plant in the Vale of Glamorgan and to see the new investment in packaging and meet the local team.”

We run a successful business, contributing to the local economy and providing local

jobs but, at the same time, we also want to make sure that we are considerate neighbours.

We put plans in place to make it easier for our neighbours to find out what we are doing on site. Our Quarry Manager, Nicola, keeps the contact details of people who want to know when we are going to be blasting so she can call in advance and let them know.

Nicola says, “We don’t blast very often at the quarry – at the most once a week, and we always try to keep to the same day and time, so that our neighbours know that it is us and don’t worry.“There are strict guidelines for limiting

the noise from our blasting that we have to work within, and all our blasting is recorded to make sure that we meet those requirements. The limits are measured in millimetres per second and our permitted limit is 6mm/second and we are always under this limit.

“To put this into context, slamming a door would record 5mm/second, and the same for a washing machine, whilst hammering a nail into a wall or drilling a hole in a wall would record 20mm/second.”

If you would like to be included in the list of people forewarned of blasting on site, please get in touch and we will add you in. Our contact details are on the back page.

Being a good neighbour

We like to get involved with community projects and organisations and offer support, where we can. This might be in the form of us helping with a community project that can be assisted by our team of skilled workers or by giving a small financial donation to help a local good cause. All applications received at the plant are reviewed by the donations committee, which looks at each request and makes its recommendation.

The types of organisations that we have previously supported include, St Athan Pensioners Group, Cowbridge Judo Club, Barry Disabled Swimming Club, Llantwit Major Lions Club, Llantwit

Major Football Club, and we also donated towards the laying of 100 wreaths as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Childrens’ Remembrance Sunday commemoration service.

If you would like to apply for a donation from Aberthaw Cement Plant, or discuss a project that you think we might be able to help you with, please get in touch with us (contact details on the front page).

Applications for donations can be download from our microsite at lafargetarmac.com/aberthaw-plant/community/

At the heart of the community

GET IN TOUCH Visit lafargetarmac.com/Aberthaw-plant Email aberthaw.feedback@lafargetarmac.com Tel 01446 752300 Twitter @AberthawCement

MARCH 2015

Taking a biodiverse view of the plant

Kara Bennett started working as the Acting Environmental Coordinator, here at the Aberthaw Cement Plant, earlier this year. Kara brings with her lots of experience of working in environmental compliance from the gas and oil industry. Kara’s main role is to make sure that the cement plant and onsite quarry keep within their rigorous environmental standards, set and monitored by our regulator, Natural Resources Wales.

Kara says, “Our site is positioned between two river estuaries, the River Thaw and the River Kenson. We have land near the quarry that we don’t use specifically and which naturally offers sites of biodiversity.

“Part of my role is to encourage and facilitate as biodiverse species as possible on site, making the most of what the plant naturally has to offer and the unique enhancement of the quarry.”

The nature of the quarry means that

it offers a lot of natural habitats and is home to wetland birds and some species of newts. Regular annual visitors to the ponds at the quarry are flocks of Canadian Geese, making a loud and spectacular entrance, each time they visit.

Whilst just in the process of putting her biodiversity plans into place, Kara has already identified one area at the works with great potential is the water-feeder, providing water for use on site where mains water is not required. All the drainage systems at the plant drain to the water feeder, where water is pumped to the top of a tower and then gravity fed to the rest of the site.

“Our water feeder is naturally attractive to adders and other native snakes, because it is slightly secluded, has a good water supply and has enough cover to provide good shelter for these reptiles.

“I am working with a local snake expert to make sure that we maximise the potential for looking after this biodiversity area, keeping the snakes safe from our processes and our people safe from the snakes,” concluded Kara.

Turning off the oven

Do you use your oven every day? Well, maybe you do, but I bet that you don’t have it on every day and for 24 hours a day! Our oven, or as it is called in the industry our kiln, is rather a large affair that sits at the heart of our operations. Our kiln operates at an extremely hot temperature - 1450˚C, which consumes 10 times more energy than the average required by other manufacturing processes. It produces the ‘clinker’ that we use to make our famous cement.

The most expensive part of the process is lighting the kiln in the first place, so we try not to turn it off, unless we absolutely have to – apart from our annual ‘winter’ shut-down, which is starting in the middle of March this year, and will last for three weeks. Once the kiln is off and cooled, we can carry out essential maintenance and improvement work, and we plan well in advance to use the time the kiln is not operating to the maximum. We draft in around 500 extra workers, most are locally based, to be supervised by the team on site to carry out maintenance and improvement works.

One of the things that we are doing this year is replacing the old hot gas ducting that runs at high level across the works and which can be seen when approaching the site from St Athan. We hope that the new ducting will be a great visual enhancement to the locality.

MARCH 2015

Do you know how important bees are to the production of our food?

Bees pollinate three quarters of all crops, not to mention thousands of wild flowers, and without them the world would be a very different place. More recently, certain pesticides have been

shown to have had a dramatic impact on honey bee populations, wiping out large numbers of colonies. In the past 100 years 20 species of British bee have become extinct, and now 35 more are at risk of extinction.

So, we’ve taken a look around our site, with the help of the Cardiff & Vale Beekeepers’ Society, and decided to keep some hives on site. Once our bees have settled in, we’ll be inviting local schools to visit and find out about how important honey bees are to our world and how to look after them.

Bee facts1. A strong colony of bees can produce

up to 25kg of honey a year2. Each colony uses between 30kg

and 60kg of pollen to keep it going, every year

3. The fruit producing capabilities of some plants are dramatically reduced if bees don’t pollinate them, as well as the quality of the fruit produced

4. Apple and cherry trees reduce production by 65% , whilst pear trees reduce production by a massive 85%.

Getting a buzz on site

Careers and apprenticeships

Could you be a member of our team? We have a keen and dedicated workforce here at the Aberthaw Cement Plant, and we’re always on the lookout for like-minded people to join the team - maybe that’s you? If you think that you have the relevant skills in mechanical or electrical engineering, or are interested in finding out about other roles at the plant, or want to find out about how you can train up to work with us, please visit the careers page of our website for local job vacancies

and lafargetarmaccareers.co.uk for information on apprenticeships and graduate training programmes.

Aberthaw Plant getsonline and digital

We’re making information about our plant available in different ways. Some people are happy to read about us in a newsletter, but others would rather use their PCs, laptops, tablets and mobiles to search for information, so now we are online too.We have our own website now, which you can find at lafargetarmac.com/Aberthaw-plant, on which you can find out about our history and the products we make here. You can also check up on our environmental credentials and we will be adding in information on our biodiversity programmes.

Reports on our regular Community Liaison Committee meetings will be posted on our microsite, so you can keep up to date with everything that we discuss with your community representatives.

And, we may be over 100 years old, but we are now on social media! Check us out on Twitter - @AberthawCement and you can follow us for links to our latest news and site updates.

We’ll use our microsite and Twitter account to let you know when important things are happening on site, and you can use them to get in touch with us. We want to hear from you and find out what you think about our website. It’s our site to share with our local community, so please take a moment and check it out for yourself.

This is how you can get in touch

Email aberthaw.feedback@lafargetarmac.comTel 01446 752300Twitter @AberthawCement

FOCUS ON ABERTHAW LAFARGE TARMAC IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY

GET IN TOUCH Visit lafargetarmac.com/Aberthaw-plant Email aberthaw.feedback@lafargetarmac.com Tel 01446 752300 Twitter @AberthawCement