New name same game

Bureau Veritas (BV), an international group whose core business is conformity assessment, is looking to work with more Chinese companies.

"The Chinese certification market is huge, and the government has made great efforts to regulate market order and improve certification effectiveness, which brings huge opportunities to certification industries," says Serge Antonini, president of the Bureau Veritas Industry and Facilities Division North East Asia.

BV will aim to better serve Chinese clients by integrating its global resources.

Antonini says BV's clientele base has increased substantially since 1993. In 2006, BV China's revenue climbed by 23 percent.

"Our expectations towards this market are quite ambitious in 2007," he says.

This year, BV will focus on helping Chinese companies overcome technical barriers and making it easier for them to export their products overseas. "In this regard, our broad network does help a lot," says Antonini.

He adds that the company would be further localized. "External growth and close cooperation with Chinese companies is of high priority to BV China," he says.

Founded in 1828 and headquartered in Paris, BV's conformity assessment businesses have extended into areas such as quality, health, safety, environment and social responsibility.

BV's services include helping companies verify the different steps of a building's construction, test materials or consumer goods, survey ships and review offshore construction plans, control the environmental impact of an industrial plant, inspect goods in a port before shipment and certify products or systems.

BV China currently works with national giants such as CNOOC and Sinopec, as well as multinationals such as Alstom, Areva, Sony, Carrefour and L'Oreal.

BV's China operation employs a workforce of 3,600 and serves more than 2,000 clients from 30 offices and laboratories. Globally, it has more than 24,000 employees in more than 700 offices and laboratories across 140 countries and regions.

In order to further integrate its resources, BV began repositioning its system certification service business at the end of 2006, initially operating as BVQI (Bureau Veritas Quality International) before becoming Bureau Veritas Certification.

"This is a worldwide branding strategy. It reflects the changes in the services offered by BV, particularly in the field of certification," says Antonini.

As an independent certification company, BVQI was set up in 1988, headquartered in London. Employing 4,700 experienced and professional auditors, it has certified about 60,000 companies in more than 140 countries.

"Our new name is a good way to tell the market that certification is one of the services that BV offers," says Antonini. "It also indicates that BV provides traditional certification as well as environmental and product certification, and customized auditing services, not only limited to quality certification.

"The change is absolutely seamless for our clients. BVQI is simply moving to a name that truly reflects its central and broader expertis: certification.

"It is not an organizational change. The contacts in all of the countries where we have a presence will not change, clients will still work with the same teams they know and trust, and the teams will follow the same procedures and rules that built our reputation over the years.

"We will continue keeping the high quality of our services," says Antonini.

(China Daily 02/26/2007 page2)