Skandia staff and their Beach Buddies!

Skandia International has become the headline sponsor for the volunteer beach cleaning organisation Beach Buddies, and the company has started with a team of staff immediately getting involved in cleaning beaches at Laxey and Groudle.

Skandia staff were given an afternoon off work to get involved in clearing a large number of bags of rubbish from Laxey and Groudle beaches in the first of what is intended to be regular beach cleaning sessions by them during the coming year.

Finance Director John Hollis said: "Team building is an important part of running a successful company like Skandia International and beach cleaning came high on the list of ideas when we asked staff how they would like to be involved in the local community.

"Beach Buddies has been cleaning beaches for a number of years and we like what they are doing for the benefit of the environment and the public, so when we found out that they were in need of financial aid we felt it was a very worthy organisation to support."

Around 20 bags of rubbish, plastic, fishing tackle, metal and several car and lorry tyres were collected by Skandia staff, the majority from Groudle beach, with as much of the material as possible recycled by Beach Buddies.

Skandia International staff plan to provide teams of beach cleaning groups to work with Beach Buddies on a regular basis, joining in with other individuals and groups of volunteers who support the organisation which usually cleans beaches on the west and north of the Island, on average three times a month.