1st Edition – May 2012

What’s new?

Hi Valued Customer,
Swenco Limited is very happy to present the first of many newsletter updates in the form of the Derry Report. Our founder – Henry Dermot Sweeny – is the inspiration for the interesting name of our Newsletter. H.D. Sweeny was known by family, friends and business acquaintances as Derry Sweeny. Thus the name of our newsletter the Derry Report.

Our intention with The Derry Report is, very simply, to keep our customers and industry friends, up to date with both new and exciting issues that are occurring in the life of our company, our staff milestones, our staff awards and other items that we believe will be of interest to our Derry Report readers. We will also use The Derry Report to update the industry with events and milestones relative to our DongGuan TTL Steel Toe factory that is serving all of our steel shank and steel toe customers with high quality products used in footwear destined for markets worldwide. We also intend to use The Derry Report, to provide us with a vehicle to update our customers on changes to industry standards, the implications of these changes and areas that may be of concern to both Swenco Limited and our customers.

We welcome this opportunity to have a casual dialogue with our customers and we certainly do hope that our readers will offer their feedback, both positive, supportive and even negative if necessary, to allow us to maintain our contact with our industry and friends and to improve our communication with them in a fun and relaxing way with The Derry Report.

Our first issue – Volume # 1 / Issue # 1 begins today!

Milestones

February 2012
50th Anniversary of Swenco Limited

From the initial roots in 1962, beginning in a small rented facility in New Hamburg, Ontario, to its existing modern facility in Waterloo, Ontario – Swenco Limited is excited and proud to be celebrating 50 years of manufacturing history. Swenco Limited continues as it has for 50 years to supply its customers, and more specifically, the safety footwear industry, with leading edge technology, solutions to manufacturing problems, safety standard compliance and guidance, and products that surpass all world standards ensuring our customers only the highest quality safety footwear components in the world. Management and Staff are proud to continue this fabulous tradition!

March 2012
Increased capacity at Dongguan TTL

Following the return of staff after Chinese New Year, to the TTL Steel Toe factory this year, plans are well underway for a huge expansion to production capacity during the balance of 2012. With current capacity hitting maximum levels of over 6,000,000 pairs, an increase of 25 percent will be a welcome answer to increasing order quantities and limited capacity. This is quite a success story to say the least, with the TTL Steel Toe factory only formed in 2005, production has gone from zero to 6,000,000 plus pairs in only seven years!!!

Quite an accomplishment for Paul Sweeny, the owner of Swenco Limited and director of TTL, and his team of TTL managers and directors. Sales of TTL steel toe caps continue to increase with the North American consumer safety footwear market driving the majority of this growth. This marks another exciting milestone for the Swenco group of companies!

Awards and Recognition

The Derry Sweeny Award

We would like to introduce the first recipient of the recently established Derry Sweeny Award, our staff member Chia Phung Cheng.

The Derry Sweeny Award is awarded to the Employee of the Quarter, as chosen by their peers. In order to be eligible for the award, the recipient must have been nominated by one or more of their peers and be justified by a detailed explanation of the reason for the nomination.

Chia has been working at Swenco Limited for over 30 years and he has continually proven his ability to work hard and efficiently without question. Chia leads our maintenance department and occasionally assists with production requirements as necessary. Staff comments were consistently complimentary of Chia’s willingness to help with questions, concerns or breakdowns with prompt and cheerful actions and efforts.

We thank Chia for all of his loyalty and consistent efforts to assist and support Swenco Limited over more than 30 years. Congratulations Chia!

20 Years of Service to CSA

Paul Sweeny receives recognition for 20 years of volunteer contributions to CSA standards development. It was a well deserved award that was received recently at the Swenco Limited offices. Paul Sweeny, our President and owner, received from the CSA International Standards Branch, a beautiful plaque inscribed as follows:

CSA Standards
20 years
Presented to Paul Sweeny
In appreciation and recognition of your 20 years of significant contributions towards
CSA Standards Development 2011
Signed: B.Rose
President, Standards
CSA Standards

While simple in gesture, this plaque recognises the incredible efforts that Paul has put forward over 20 years, chairing committees, providing input, guidance, testing facilities and most importantly, time, to assist CSA technical committees with the difficult tasks of developing safety footwear standards that satisfy the important safety needs of the consumer, while maintaining fairness and realistic guidelines that can be achieved within various manufacturing and footwear assembly processes.

All of these efforts have been provided as a volunteer, with no remuneration and generally with little thanks. This plaque represents and recognises these efforts and has been sincerely received by Paul Sweeny on behalf of himself and his company, Swenco Limited.