Company to pay over £500,000 after workers burned

A leading food manufacturer has been fined £594,000 after a man was left with second-degree burns whilst conducting maintenance work at a factory.

Two men were working in the boiler room at the Samworth Brothers Ltd, operated Kettleby Foods factory, near Melton Mowbray, when they were both splashed with hot water from pipework they were repairing.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the company failed to risk assess the task and to "document a safe system of work" for the repairs.

Samworth Brothers Ltd was fined at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 4 September after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in June this year.

The HSE said the two men were working to replace a leaking gasket in an isolation valve on steam pipework in the boiler room of the factory.

A gantry above the boiler didn't provide access to the specific part of the pipework they were working on, so both men had to step off the gantry and work on top of the boiler.

When they removed the gasket, they were both splashed with hot water from the pipework, the HSE added.

One of the men suffered 4-5% subdermal burns, and the other suffered 9% subdermal, second-degree burns.

An HSE investigation also found "suitable isolation and lock-off procedures" were not in use, "sufficient measures" weren't in place to prevent a fall from height and there was a "lack of adequate supervision and monitoring procedures in place to ensure that expected processes were followed."

HSE inspector Stacey Gamwell said Samworth Brothers Ltd, which owns Ginsters, Soreen and West Cornwall Pasty Co. brands,"should have known better".

She said: "This was a wholly avoidable incident which could have resulted in even more serious consequences.

"If Samworth Brothers Ltd had properly risk-assessed the task, they would have identified the need for proper controls for working at height, as well as robust isolation and lock-off procedures, including supervision and monitoring to make sure those procedures and controls were properly enforced.

"Their failure led to severe and painful scalding injuries which should never have happened.

"The result handed down should serve as a warning to employers; when it comes to keeping people safe, HSE won't hesitate to take action against firms which fall short."

A spokesperson for Samworth Brothers Ltd said it launched an "extensive internal review" after the men were injured.

As a result "several changes" were made to improve its health and safety systems and "processes in this area of work across our business", they added.

A statement from the company said: "The health and safety of our colleagues is our most important priority, and we are very sorry that this incident happened.

"It is important to learn from these events.

"Immediately after the accident we launched an extensive internal review to fully understand what had happened.

"As a result of this internal investigation several changes were made immediately to further improve upon our health and safety systems and processes in this area of work across our business.

"In addition, we co-operated very closely with the Health and Safety Executive on their own investigations."

The company of Chetwode House, 1 Samworth Way, Melton Mowbray, was ordered to pay £5,834 in prosecution costs, in full, and a £2,000 victim surcharge at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.

The company was also ordered to pay £6,000 in compensation to the injured employee. All sums are to be paid by 4 January 2027.

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