How Custom Health and Safety Boards Helped Country Style Foods Grow Safely

Sep 7, 2020

From a Single Bread Shop

One of the biggest challenges of growing a business is ensuring that health and safety keeps pace with expansion. As new sites, processes, and personnel come into play, safety policies and communication methods must evolve to keep workers informed, engaged, and protected.

At Country Style Foods, this principle is at the heart of their approach. A modern craft bakery with a heritage spanning more than 150 years, Country Style has grown from a single bread shop to multiple large-scale production sites. Supplying leading retailers and food service operators, the business specialises in high-volume production of rustic rolls, artisan breads, doughnuts, and pastry products.

Managing health and safety across a fast-growing business of this scale presents unique challenges - ones that Dougie Hornsby, Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) Coordinator, has worked hard to overcome. By investing in clear, customised safety signs and information boards, Country Style has transformed workplace safety communication and ensured that every team member stays in the loop.

How Safety Needs Change Over Time

As EHS Coordinator, Dougie is responsible for everything from site inspections and accident investigations to air, noise, and legionella surveys. With Country Style’s rapid expansion -including new factory sites and automated machinery investments - keeping safety communication clear, visible, and effective has become more critical than ever.

“Growing from a small unit into multiple factory sites has made health and safety management far more complex,” says Dougie. “With recent investment in automation to reduce manual handling risks, and more upgrades planned, we’ve had to revamp our safety policies and, crucially, find better ways to communicate them across all sites.”

This is where the right safety signage and custom health & safety boards have played a vital role.

Clear Priorities for Health & Safety

At Country Style Foods, the key priorities for health and safety are:

Keeping staff and visitors safe, whether they are handling ingredients, working with machinery, or moving around production areas
Training and guidance for workers on forklift and scissor lift operations, plant room safety, and manual handling
Ensuring that all safety messages are visible, with clear signage and communication methods in place

A major focus has been engagement—ensuring that workers feel involved in safety decisions, understand the measures in place, and have access to the right visual information at all times.

How Custom Safety Signs & Boards Made a Difference

Working with SafetyBuyer, Country Style has introduced a broad range of safety signage and information boards across their sites, including:

Custom safety signs at site entrances, reinforcing safety priorities from the moment visitors arrive
Health & safety information boards, providing a clear, central hub for key messages
Anti-slip floor signs, first aid stations, barriers, and marking paints, ensuring site-wide safety measures are visible
Bespoke designs incorporating Country Style’s branding for a professional, company-wide safety standard

“The site entrance signage has been particularly impactful,” says Dougie. “It instantly demonstrates our commitment to safety, setting the tone for every person entering the site—whether they’re staff, contractors, or visitors.”

Perhaps the biggest game-changer has been the ability to design safety boards from scratch. This has allowed Country Style to upgrade notice boards, staff suggestion boards, and safety communication hubs to the same professional standard as large corporate businesses.

“Previously, safety communication was lacking—we had nowhere to post updates or display key safety news. Now, we have bright, eye-catching, highly visible boards that staff actually use. It’s helped transform how we engage with workers on safety.”

The Role of Communication in Workplace Safety

Through collaboration with SafetyBuyer, Country Style Foods has significantly improved how safety messages are communicated—and this has had a direct impact on worker engagement.

“The appreciation from our staff has been massive,” says Dougie. “They can see that we take safety seriously. By including them in decision-making—through health & safety meetings, work forums, and feedback sessions—we’ve created a workplace where safety is a shared responsibility.”

With information boards keeping workers updated, and suggestion boards allowing them to provide feedback, staff feel heard—and safer as a result.

“If people know you’re serious about safety, they’re more likely to follow best practices and work safely themselves.”