Chicago-based, Quality Certification Alliance (QCA), the promotional product industry’s only independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping companies provide safe products, has awarded accreditation to two additional suppliers,
· Parsippany, New Jersey-based Avaline
· Baldwin Park, California-based Fanda Enterprises, Inc. dba PromoFactory
These firms join the ranks of 11 companies that have previously met the rigorous qualifications to achieve QCA Accreditation—Barton Nelson Inc., BDA Inc., Broder Bros., Dard Products Inc., Gemline, Gordon Sinclair, Leed’s, Logomark, Inc., MMI; Prime Resources Corp., and Sweda Company LLC.
“When Avaline applied for QCA accreditation, there was no question that product safety, social and environmental compliance was becoming an area of growing importance in the promotional products industry,” said Len Hornstein, Avaline CEO. “It took us more than a year to accomplish all the necessary tasks to gain accreditation. What’s been great is that by improving our internal processes, we began realizing benefits immediately.”
“Earlier this year we received a large order for a Fortune 500 Company,” he continued. “From being in the QCA accreditation process, we immediately knew the regulatory requirements and were able to advise the client in order to deliver a quality product that was compliant. We felt like leaders, not followers, as we worked to improve everything about our supply chain and in-house operations. Now that we’ve achieved QCA accreditation, we expect it to continue enhancing our business in the future.”
QCA accredited companies have endorsed a self-certification, completed a rigorous self-assessment and then submitted their headquarters and their supply base to a third-party audit. The QCA board uses a scorecard representing the performance of the applicant and its supply chain on the third-party audits as the foundation for granting accreditation.
“Being a relatively smaller-size supplier, achieving QCA accreditation is a great honor and accomplishment for us,” said Harvey Fan, president of Fanda Enterprises, Inc. dba PromoFactory. “Hopefully it can encourage more small- to medium-size suppliers to join the QCA accreditation Process and show commitment to providing compliant product to our promotional products community. I believe having QCA accreditation will increase the buying confidence from both distributors and their end-user clients towards our products and continue enhancing our reputation in the future.”
“I think the telling factor with Avaline and Fanda/Promo Factory was their commitment to finishing what they started,” said Brent Stone, QCA executive director–operations. “Our growing pool of accredited suppliers, as well as continued progress with new applicants reinforces our belief that companies of any size and any product category can successfully complete the QCA accreditation Process. Client awareness and vigilance regarding safe and complaint products continues to increase, and we are seeing widespread distributor support for QCA efforts.” Stone continued, “We especially appreciate the distributor engagement and feedback on the QCA solutions that will best meet their inbound client needs. We are also encouraged to continue hearing about examples where QCA accredited suppliers are gaining entry into preferred supplier programs due to their compliance efforts with QCA.”
About QCA:
Chicago, Illinois-based Quality Certification Alliance is an independent, accreditation organization whose mission is to elevate the standards by which industry firms that import and/or manufacture promotional products provide consistently safe, high-quality, socially compliant and environmentally conscientious merchandise. QCA Accreditation is granted to companies who complete an independent third-party audit and comply with stringent standards, which are based upon a combination of state and national laws, international standards and industry-accepted best practices that are recognized for their strength and effectiveness by QCA Accredited companies, the promotional products industry and end-user clients.
QCA was formed in July 2008 with 13 of the founding companies meeting the rigorous qualifications to achieve QCA Accreditation—Avaline, Barton Nelson, Inc.; BDA Inc.; Broder Bros.; Dard Products, Inc.; Fanda Enterprises, Inc. dba PromoFactory; Gemline; Gordon Sinclair; Leed’s; Logomark, Inc.; MMI; Prime Resources Corp.; and Sweda Company LLC—with several others soon to complete the process. D E (Denise) Fenton serves as executive director–compliance, and Brent Stone serves as executive director–operations.
For more information, visit www.qcalliance.org.
