Accepta Newsletter: Issue 24

Welcome to issue 24. It’s been a busy year at Accepta with lots of things going on. We’ve seen significant growth in many areas of our business, we’ve continued to develop our product range with the addition of many excellent new and innovative products, and we've worked very hard to maintain stability in our pricing.

Here are just a few highlights:

In June we were officially recognised as one of the most visited sites on the Internet for the water treatment and associated speciality chemicals sectors.

In August we successfully relocated our headquarters staff to a new, fully equipped office facility at Quay West, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester, which is located close to the award winning Lowry Centre, Imperial War Museum and of course Old Trafford, home of the great Manchester United Football Club!

In September we were awarded a prestigious e-business award at the UK's Department of Trade and Industry E-Commerce Awards 2004.

By October we were trading with over 50 countries worldwide and advising clients in a further 100 countries…..and more.

Finally, We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our friends’, partners and colleagues for their continued support and wish you all good health and best wishes for the coming holiday season, and a prosperous 2005.

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In this issue:

• Legionnaires’ Disease in Hospitals & Healthcare Facilities.
• Ways to Boost Your Company Profits - Part 1.
• Cost Effective Vessel Washing - A Good Practice Guide.
• Ways to Boost Your Company Profits - Part 2.

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Legionnaires’ Disease in

Hospitals & Healthcare Facilities

Hospital-acquired Legionnaires' disease usually originates in hospital water systems. Legionella not only persists in hot water tanks, it is often found in the biofilm through the entire water system. Conditions within water systems that promote Legionella colonisation include water temperature, configuration and age of the hot water tank, and plumbing materials.

An estimated 10 to 15 thousand people contract Legionnaires' disease in the US each year; 5 to 15% of these cases prove to be fatal. An additional unknown number are infected with Legionella bacterium and have mild symptoms or no illness at all. Additionally, Legionellosis is frequently misdiagnosed as common pneumonia.

The occurrence of Legionnaires Disease, and subsequent fatality rates, caused by nosocomial Legionellosis are much higher in hospitals & healthcare facilities than are observed elsewhere. In many parts of the world there is strong legislation to ensure that this entirely avoidable disease is prevented from coming into contact with high-risk members….more on Legionnaires’ disease

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Boosting Company Profits

Under Growth Conditions

Part 1

Understanding how to boost profits under growth conditions is an essential part of successful management. When your company’s business is booming there are a number of specific concerns (opportunities) that need to be addressed by managers and staff members alike. Below we’ve listed a few key strategies that you should consider to ensure that you make the most of your business opportunities:

Good forecasting and planning - Spend time forecasting your future business activities. Manufacturing and servicing divisions can’t be run effectively without an accurate forecast of the needs of that area.

Develop a good business plan - Manage your cash flow. Businesses can get into trouble if they tie their cash up whilst in a growth phase. Growing businesses require cash, and a good business plan is necessary, especially when approaching the bank or other financial institution for a loan.

Avoid holding too much stock - Managers are often pushed by sales teams to hold surplus stock. Be careful as this can tie-up cash, the lifeblood of a business. Make sure you accurately forecast your inventory needs and avoid overstocking.

Control unnecessary spending - Be careful not to become too loose with unnecessary spending. This is easy to do, especially when the company is very profitable.

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Cost Effective Vessel Washing

Good Practice Guide

This Good Practice Guide aims to help companies save money and improve their environmental performance through managing vessel washing operations more effectively and, where appropriate, making technical improvements to the process.

The Guide is of particular relevance to the speciality chemicals sector, where the use of multi-product batch processing requires vessel washing between different product campaigns.

The technical and management options examined in the Guide have already been successfully adopted by companies from different parts of the speciality chemicals sector. Between them, these companies manufacture a broad range of products, including pigments and dyes, agrochemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates, drilling muds and deodorants.

Despite the diversity of products, processes and company sizes, the measures taken to improve vessel washing operations are broadly similar. They include a range of no-cost and low-cost solutions. The same approaches can help many other companies to achieve similar levels of commercial and environmental improvement.

The Guide:

• provides companies, and particularly those staff responsible for vessel washing operations,
• with practical advice on how to secure lasting improvements;
• demonstrates that cost-effective improvements really can be achieved with the right level of commitment and mostly without the need for major investment;
• is applicable to all washing techniques and wash liquors;
• includes a sequence of worksheets, checklists and real-life industry examples;
• gives advice that will ensure product quality is maintained.

For your complimentary copy of this excellent case study please e-mail sdooner@accepta.com quoting the full title of the document.

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Boosting Company Profits

Under Growth Conditions

Part 2

Supplier relationships - Ensure supplier quality standards are maintained and prices remain competitive at all times.

Communicate with your employees - Praise and reward those employees who are performing well. Acknowledge good work, or consider introducing a formal reward system.

Build a nest egg - When you have surplus cash in the bank, make sure you build a nest egg to carry you through the lean times. Paying off debts is integral in the success of your company, and lack of cash during difficult times can ruin a company, so a nest egg is essential – get building.

Get rid of your debt - The less you borrow; the better off your company will be during good and tough times. Get rid of your debt.