Health and safety

Board‑level accountability and governance

Health and safety remain a fundamental priority for Zotefoams, shaping our culture, guiding leadership behaviours and informing operational decision-making across the Group. The Board retains ultimate responsibility for health and safety performance and operates with a low risk appetite in this regard. Progress is reviewed quarterly through structured Group-level reporting, including detailed assessments of incidents, legislative developments and performance trends.

In 2025, health and safety governance was further strengthened through the formalisation of the Group Health, Safety & Wellbeing Leadership Team, comprising members of the Group Executive Team, OHSE, HR and operational leadership. This forum provides consistent global leadership focus, cultural alignment and strategic prioritisation across all regions. The wider Senior Leadership Team plays a central role in embedding our ambition to achieve and sustain industry-leading safety performance, supported by globally aligned KPIs, enhanced reporting transparency and unified OHSE systems.

The Board also reviewed the root-cause analysis of all RIDDOR and high-risk potential incidents, ensuring both immediate and longer-term corrective actions were identified and implemented.

Executive accountability

Health and safety performance forms a core component of executive accountability, with leadership behaviours, incident response quality and cultural maturity explicitly considered in performance assessment and Board oversight processes.

Leading indicators and learning culture

Alongside recordable injury metrics, the Group places increasing emphasis on near-miss reporting, potential high-risk incidents and proactive safety observations as leading indicators to strengthen prevention and organisational learning.

Third-party safety

Third-party safety remains a key focus, particularly during periods of expansion and capital investment, with defined standards, structured induction requirements and ongoing performance oversight aligned to Group OHSE policy.

Process safety intent

Given the nature of our manufacturing processes, process safety remains a critical risk focus, with continued emphasis on controls, maintenance discipline, change management and incident learning to prevent low-probability, high-impact events.

Regulatory horizon scanning

The Group actively monitors evolving health and safety regulations and best practice across all jurisdictions it operates in to ensure continued compliance and alignment.

Performance in 2025

In 2025, we transitioned to Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) as our primary safety KPI, aligning with global industry standards to improve comparability and sharpen management focus on safety performance.

During the year, the Group recorded nine recordable incidents, resulting in a TRIR of 1.4. Two of these incidents met the criteria for reportable injuries under RIDDOR, occurring at the MEL Leominster, USA site and the Walton, USA facility. All incidents were subject to thorough investigation, with corrective actions implemented and learnings shared across the Group to reduce the risk of recurrence.

Alongside this, meaningful progress was made in strengthening proactive safety behaviours across multiple sites. For example, Croydon achieved more than 30% growth in safety engagement participation across key periods compared with 2024, reflecting increased frontline involvement and ownership of safety outcomes.

Across all sites, we continued to invest in education, behavioural safety and early hazard identification. Employees receive role-specific training at onboarding and through ongoing refresher sessions, supported by behavioural safety programmes including Safety Engagements, daily safety moments, enhanced Gemba walk routines and structured toolbox talks

Global Health, Safety and Wellbeing Day 2025

In November 2025, the Group held its first Global Health, Safety and Wellbeing Day, bringing together colleagues across all regions for hands-on learning and engagement activities. Events included fire safety demonstrations, mental health and wellbeing sessions, manual handling workshops and live-streamed safety modules. Feedback was positive, and structured reflection sessions have been incorporated into the 2026 improvement cycle to ensure the initiative continues to evolve and deliver impact.