My Unipart Journey - Paul Day

Hyperbat Safety Health & Environment (SHE) & Operations Manager Paul Day started his Unipart journey in 2011 as a Shift Manager at Kautex Unipart Limited (KUL), a joint venture between Unipart Group and Kautex Textron, providing solutions within our Design, Engineering and Manufacturing core capability to customers within the Automotive sector.

After working on a number of exciting projects, Paul wanted to focus his career on a specific area he was passionate about. He explained: “I have always had an interest in my colleague’s health, safety and wellbeing, wanting to empower colleagues to always“do the right thing, even when no one is watching. So, as part of my personal development I undertook the NEBOSH general certificate that would start me on the career path of being a Health, Safety & Environmental Manager.”

In 2019 Paul was tasked with leading the site’s health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said: “This was a unique and worrying time for everyone, as we were facing something that we had never seen before, and hopefully never will again. It made me realise that being part of a joint venture meant I could utilise the strengths, skills and experiences of two global companies to protect our employees.

“Today, I utilise this to benchmark best practices and initiatives that we have for all aspects of manufacturing, logistics, technologies and personal wellbeing, as well as health and safety, without even leaving the businesses.”

In 2023 Paul joined Hyperbat to expand his knowledge and skills in a new sector - battery manufacturing. He said: “This was something that I was not experienced with, nor an expert, but the concept of being able to safely produce and manufacture low volume battery packs for niche vehicles and projects in a clean room environment seemed to be something I could not resist. Soon after joining I recognised that by working closer with the production leads we could implement the SHE standards quicker and more effectively. This resulted in taking responsibility for production and enabling the team leaders to further implement the SHE standards and improvements that were being developed.

“Throughout my career I have always been invested in people, as only by listening and understanding can we learn and improve. At Hyperbat we are all aligned to continuously improve our positive safety and quality culture, encouraging colleagues to use The Unipart Way tools and techniques we will accelerate margin accretive revenue growth so we can create exciting new opportunities.

We asked Paul what advice he would give to colleagues wanting to develop. He said: “Have a growth mindset and be open to opportunities - sometimes what may seem like a side step is actually a step forward. Within Unipart there are many training and development opportunities and very often all it takes is a conversation with your manager to unlock those paths. When you get the opportunity, take it and grow.”

Some personal highlights for me over my time at Unipart will always be when teams work well together to make improvements and changes that people benefit from, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. It is great when solutions are found that help those that use it most. I will always remember the wellbeing activities with employee and family participation, such as wolf runs, cycling challenges, charity fundraisers, voluntary work, safety days, family fun days and much more. This is the belief and culture that Hyperbat and myself are proud to be part of and will continue to embed in all levels of our business.