Select PPE was recently awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2015 Southern African Personal Protective Equipment Visionary Innovation Leadership Award at a prestigious ceremony that hosted 140 of Africa’s top innovative executives at Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town.

The annual client-nominated award recognises outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation and strategic product development. Sales Director, Dries van Tonder, accepted the award on behalf of the 400-member South African-based company for its innovative PPE solutions for women and software that facilitates greater PPE control to previously unreachable markets.  

Frost & Sullivan analysts independently attributed Select PPE’s worthiness of this award to the following three aspects:

PPE for Women in Mining and Industry

To date, PPE has been specifically designed for men and does not properly fit a woman’s form, reducing not only its protective functioning but also the popularity among women in the industry. Select PPE, one of the few suppliers of female PPE through its field-researched programme, Women in Industry, has pioneered more accurate form-fitting equipment that significantly enhances overall industry safety standards.

Innovative Software to Enhance PPE Management

The company has developed innovative software that challenges decades-old business models in a move away from paper-controlled business transactions towards online integration. This software, named PPE Solution, provides real-time information on all PPE users and daily usage, controlled by an application-specific Issuing Protocol (IP). This IP includes an assessment of the type and quantity of protective equipment needed, automatic replenishment of stock, and alerts the head of safety when an employee is at risk.  

PPE Solution not only facilitates a safer working environment and reduces operational costs for clients, but also helps mitigate possibilities of accidents and potential litigation costs. The solution addresses the industry-wide challenge of PPE abuse by logging staff-specific PPE onto their clock cards as a form of PPE-identification, alerting managers to potential PPE abuse with individual product records. This level of detail and control in Select PPE’s solutions, coupled with the comprehensive and user-friendly software, is pioneering holistic and modern solutions to a traditional industry.

Solutions for Small-scale PPE

This unique online capability has enabled Select PPE to capture markets that have traditionally been hard to access. Previously, smaller operations with 150 to 350 employees were difficult to supply with PPE, as it was not economically viable to have on-site facilities. Select PPE’s software, online store and ‘vending machine’ for PPE affords these smaller customers access to the full benefits of a holistic PPE solution.  

Select PPE is also expanding its African operations by taking its PPE Solution to distributors across the continent.

Reflecting on the award, Select PPE Sales Director, Dries van Tonder said: “That the fact that this award is nominated by our clients is a great achievement. To get acknowledgement that our PPE systems are pushing boundaries and helping clients address real concerns shows us that we are living up to our slogan of ‘Protecting People Everyday’.”

About Select PPE

Headquartered in Randfontein, South Africa, Select PPE has operated in the PPE industry since the last 16 years. Expanding from 5 locations to more than 200 on-site locations in South Africa and 15 locations in Zambia, the company has established itself as an industry leader for PPE solutions. Select PPE is wholly owned by MSA International, a New York Stock Exchange listed company that offers strategic and Mega Trends analysis support to navigate risks and encourage innovation. Offering complete turnkey solutions to clients, Select PPE has uniquely positioned itself in the market delivering a comprehensive set of PPE functions for clients. www.selectppe.co.za