A vitamin and food supplement company is giving staff daily doses of its own products in a bid to cut down on sickness.

G&G Food Supplies is then giving an extra week's paid holiday to staff who do not take sick leave.

The new scheme has replace its five-day concessionary sick pay scheme where staff were allowed up to five days sickness with five days extra holiday.

The East Grinstead-based company is known as a leader in the health food field.

Community relations manager John Prigent said: "We took the un-usual step of doing a staff survey to establish what our staff thought of us as a company and what improvements should be made, in both the running of the company and its facilities, as well as any changes in attitude required.

"The survey was completely anonymous, so there was no bias towards giving us flattering answers.

"The main thing to emerge was 90 per cent of staff considered us to be caring or interested as an employer.

"I joined the company only six months ago, on a referral from the local employment centre, and I have found G&G not only very caring but also very interested in how my role could progress within the company.

"The reward to staff for being healthy instead of sick came out of the survey and the company has given a great deal of consideration to how it can strengthen its reputation as an employer.

"As a result, we are making a daily nutrition pack available to all staff who want it. It will be a free staff benefit which we feel will contribute to their health during the summer and winter cold and 'flu times."

Managing director Jeremy Stephens said: "About two years ago we decided to adopt a zero tolerance to the use of recreational drugs by company staff, whether during the working week or off hours.

"At the same time we took a zero tolerance approach to alcohol abuse. We did not follow the common route of simply dismissing staff with such problems.

"Employees were given the opportunity of consulting people who helped them overcome their problems. From our point of view, a happy staff is a productive staff.

"People who work here, who do not have a drug or alcohol problem, are people who can be happy, work well and are not a liability for their fellow workers to carry."

"Therefore, it was a logical step and in G&G's own interests for us to provide the same high-quality supplements to our own people as we do to our customers all over the world.

"We wanted to help them eliminate threats to their health by taking positive action with our new daily pack.

"In the words of the song, 'eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive' and, in this case, the positive will be provided by G&G."