'Ciba’s working hard to improve its image'

From the archive, first published Saturday 14th Jul 2007.

We will all have driven past it at one point but you do not really get a sense of the size of Ciba until you visit it.

The myriad entrances, exits, pipes, office buildings, manufacturing areas and towering pipes are imposing, even to someone who grew up in industrial Teesside.

The sight of towers, flame stacks and chimneys present a very negative image for some and of late Ciba has been working hard to overcome it.

Inside I meet Dr Mike McFarlane, site director and head of technical operations, who tells me that the negative image of the chemical industry is something his company is working hard to overcome.

"It is a tough message to sell but the onus is on us to do something. People who have a negative perception of the industry are not going to seek out information about how we perform in terms of safety, how our products add to society or how the 1,000 employees who work here benefit the local area and economy.

"What people do not often hear about is how much regulation there is for the industry in terms of safety and emissions.

"In my 20 years in the industry I have found that chemical companies more often than not go beyond what is required of them in these areas. We have to have safe processes and spend a great deal on the plant to make sure that happens."

The figures certainly seem to back this up. Last year £6.5 million was invested in the Bradford site, with a further £6.5 million planned for this year.

To get the message across Ciba has been getting involved in more and more projects to extol the benefits of the chemical trade.

Earlier this year it hosted a Yorkshire Chemical Focus event to challenge volunteers to live a day without using any products or services not touched or aided by the chemical industry. The event was successful in highlighting how far reaching the industry is and how much consumers take for granted and depend on chemicals to get by.

The range of applications chemicals facilitate is reflected in the variety of products work that Ciba enables.

Twenty per cent of Ciba's worldwide output is produced in Bradford. Last year it launched 33 new products and the chemicals produced at the Low Moor site assist in industries as diverse as paper manufacturing, mining, water treatment and oil extraction.

Flying in the face of the perception that chemicals equate to pollution, much of the work done at Ciba benefits the environment in the shape of improving efficiency in other industries.

Dr McFarlane said: "We are seeing real growth in this area. Everybody is looking for efficient, cost-effective ways of doing things and to process products more effectively. Eighty per cent of our products are exported."

Much of the highly technical work also goes towards helping separate solids and liquids, a crucial technique in the extraction of rare resources in such areas as mining.

Dr McFarlane's own background in science has seen him work for long periods in the United States before returning to the UK last year to take charge of the Bradford site.

Dr McFarlane said that some of the research and development work attracts experts from across the globe to come and work there and that many innovations in the company come from the Bradford site.

Much of the workforce hails from the BD12 area in which Ciba is sited and the company says it does its best to keep relations with its neighbours sound.

Regular contact meetings are held with local residents to update people to any onsite changes and a growing programme of volunteering is underway, seeing staff help look after neighbouring community centres and church halls.

Most importantly, Ciba has made efforts to bring children from virtually every school in the area into the plant to let local youngsters know about the work done there.

The hope is, as Dr McFarlane says, to spark interest in science amongst the children - hopefully having the knock- on effect of pushing them into science education and one day perhaps through the doors at Ciba as employees of the company.