BRUSSELS, November 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Ansell Guardian(SM) Enables Companies to Make the Right Decisions for Increasing Both Safety and Productivity

In recognition of Ansell Healthcare's performance in the European market for hand protection solutions Frost Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, awarded Ansell Healthcare Europe with the 2008 European Protective Gloves Customer Service Leadership Award. The award is presented to Ansell for developing Guardian(SM), a risk assessment tool helping manufacturing companies improve safety while simultaneously increasing productivity and standardising products. It helps to make best practice, standard practice.

Ansell Healthcare is clearly leading the way for customer service as many glove producers do not deal with end-users, and leave it up to the distributor. End-users are usually bombarded by too many different types of gloves and can therefore potentially select the wrong glove for a certain application, said Brian Balmer, Head Analyst, Frost Sullivan. Guardian(SM) is eliminating this problem by offering a modern, rational approach to maximising return on a company's hand protection investment. Ansell has identified a major industry challenge, and as a result has developed a highly integrated solution, in order to maximise the benefits for Ansell customers.

We are proud to be recognized for our customer service leadership in PPE (personal protective equipment) industry, said Werner Heintz, Senior Vice President Regional Director Ansell Healthcare Europe. We consider this award as a acknowledgment of our customer intimacy strategy. Ansell Healthcare is indeed dedicated to serving the needs of industrial workers through providing innovative, effective and comfortable hand protective solutions backed by professional and technical support. Our unique Guardian(SM) service is designed to help large production sites qualifying and quantifying risk exposures for increasing both worker safety and productivity. With Guardian(SM) Ansell is taking things one step further in its commitment to be companies' preferred hand protection expert partner.

Note to editors:

About Ansell: http://www.ansell.eu.

About Frost Sullivan: http://www.frost.com

More information about Guardian(SM) can be downloaded: http://www.ansellguardian.eu

For more information about Guardian(SM) or about Ansell, please contact: Wouter Piepers, Director Communications, Ansell Healthcare tel: +32-2-528-75-68, cellular: +32-478-33-56-32, email: wpiepers@eu.ansell.com Olivier Trop Duval Guillaume I PR cellular: +32-486-510-419 email: olivier.trop@duvalguillaume.com

For more information about GuardianSM or about Ansell, please contact: Wouter Piepers, Director Communications, Ansell Healthcare, tel: +32-2-528-75-68, cellular: +32-478-33-56-32, email: wpiepers@eu.ansell.com; Olivier Trop, Duval Guillaume I PR, cellular: +32-486-510-419, email: olivier.trop@duvalguillaume.com