Envesca, a company founded by husband and wife team, Simon and Sue Ellis, is celebrating 21 years of championing health and safety.

From a small home office in Gloucester, the couple have created a successful award-winning business built on a solid reputation and an overriding passion to inspire and engage.

Today the couple head a 12-strong team at Envesca's headquarters in Stroud Road, Gloucester, with 25 associate trainers delivering more than 50 accredited courses. The expanding company recently took on two more staff members.

"The business has grown year on year and the services we offer have also expanded tremendously," said Sue. With ten awards to its credit, including recently becoming finalists in this year's Gloucestershire Women in Business Awards, Envesca is now one of the longest established health and safety companies in the South West.

"When we started we just offered food safety training and consultancy but over the years we have added Health and Safety, First Aid, Fire Safety, Train The Trainer and Customer Service to our portfolio," said Sue, Envesca's Managing Director.

Envesca runs regular public courses throughout Gloucestershire and the surrounding counties. The company is very flexible, offering bespoke in-house courses to fit around companies and their different work patterns. "We understand that not every business is 9 to 5, so neither is ours. We can offer out of hours and weekend training and support," said Sue. "as well as a choice of over 25 eLearning programmes."

Envesca is also a health and safety business partner for many companies through their Safeguard Plus service. Whether it's an everyday compliance issue or an emergency situation, they support their Safeguard members every step of the way. They provide each member with pro-active, sensible advice and support to help protect their business, giving them peace of mind knowing their company is legal, safe, organised, running smoothly and moving forward.

As Envesca's reputation has grown so has its catchment area. "Although based in Gloucester we have customers all over the UK and also overseas including Gibraltar and we have trained the staff onboard the QE2," said Simon, Envesca's Operations Director. With health and safety and food safety legislation changing frequently, businesses who do not stay up to speed and get it wrong do so at their peril. They run the risk of prosecution, extremely heavy fines and even imprisonment.

"A lot of the businesses are just not aware of what they have to do to comply with health and safety. Once they get five or more employees they have to have written policies, procedures and risk assessments in place. A lot of businesses do not realise that this is the case," explained Simon. "We offer businesses a free health and safety review which will highlight any issues they had not thought about.

"Much of Envesca's business is gained through word of mouth recommendations with many repeat customers, some of whom have used the company since it started.

"We have built up some tremendous customer relationships over the years and it is good to help people," said Sue. "We have a great team working here and they are very much part of the Envesca family."

"As a business person one of the most important things I have learnt over the years is the importance of keeping up to date with changing legislation - ignorance is not a defence. To help businesses stay up to date, we offer a free monthly Spotlight on Safety publication which also gives access to sensible, practical and easy to implement health and safety and food safety strategies to help them stay ahead of the game."

Health and safety may be regarded by some as red tape but that is certainly not how Envesca sees it. "Health and safety is all about protecting you, your business, your staff and your customers," said Simon.

To mark its 21st anniversary Envesca has launched a new website www.envesca.co.uk  where you can find more information, subscribe to Spotlight on Safety or book your free health and safety review. Alternatively, call 01452 502113 or email Sue Ellis on sue.ellis@envesca.co.uk

Pictured: The Envesca team celebrate 21 years in business (top) and founders Sue and Simon Ellis.