Derbyshire business honoured as ‘Covid Hero’ after donating thousands of visors to hospital staff

Sue Davenport and Nigel Bishop accepting the ‘Covid Hero’ award for Liniar.

Liniar, a plastic extrusion company based in Denby, near Ripley, was honoured with the Covid-19 Business Hero Award at the G Awards ceremony in London last week. It received the award after donating 38,500 PPE visors to staff at Derby Royal Hospital.

Oliver Marriott, a design and development apprentice at the company, pioneered the project after learning from family members at the hospital about the struggle to obtain PPE. He said: “My family members were telling me about continued PPE shortages- and as the pandemic continued to get worse, I could see the stress they were under.

“I’m so proud that Liniar took my idea and ran with it and I’m delighted at how many people, along with my family members, we’ve been able to help.”

Staff at Derby Royal Hospital wearing visors donated by the company.

From April 2020, the Liniar team designed, prototyped, 3D-printed and manufactured protective visors, investing £20,000 on tooling and starting to get them out to those who needed them within just two weeks. All NHS and care workers received the visors free of charge.

The judging panel chose Liniar as one of two joint winners of the award, and group sales director Nigel Bishop said: “The PPE project gave our whole team a great sense of direction and satisfaction during very uncertain times.

“The pandemic hasn’t stopped our community engagement- in fact, we’ve helped more people than ever before- so I’m extremely pleased Liniar has been recognised for the amazing work that’s still helping to deliver vital PPE to the NHS and care workers.”