Inspection, testing and certification SGS Italia

INSPECTION, TESTING AND CERTIFICATION

SGS Italia SpA, part of the global SGS group, has been active in Italy since 1915 as an independent provider of service and system inspections, testing and certifications. Barbara Rossi speaks to Peter Mazzei, SGS’s marketing and communication director for Italy and south east Europe, about his company and its recent acquisition of Sertec.

The SGS group is the world leader in its sector and is established in all continents, with 67,000 employees and 1250 offices and laboratories. Headquartered in Geneva, it commenced its activity in 1878 and offers its wide range of services to all market sectors.

SGS Italia SpA, part of south east Europe area, driven by Mr Duilio Giacomelli, which

replicates the group’s offer at national level, is headquartered in Milan where it employs around 150 people. Furthermore, the company has a good coverage of the whole Italian territory thanks to its 21 offices and 8 laboratories, located in Bari, Brindisi, Cagliari, Genova, Livorno, Milano, Napoli, Novara, Padova, Palermo, Pescara, Portoscuso, Ravenna, Roma, Savona, Siracusa, Torino and Venezia. This network not only provides SGS with good geographical coverage, but also with the potential for coping with an increase in demand, without the need for new or expanded facilities.

At the national level SGS has around 1000 people. SGS Italia SpA offers its services only to the Italian market as export markets are within the scope of their respective SGS national companies.

While the market segments served by SGS are varied and include industries such as agriculture, consumer testing, the environment, government and institutions, the industrial sector, life science services, minerals, oil, gas and chemicals and system and services certifications, the main recipient of its services is the industrial sector.

For this reason the acquisition of Sertec, a leader in workplace health and safety testing and assessment, which took place at the beginning of 2011, has been of particular importance. In fact, thanks to this acquisition SGS has been able to extend the range of services it offers to the health and safety testing field. Now the SGS portfolio also includes emergency plans, safety assessments, fire safety practices and risk assessment documentation. While these services are targeted to any type of company, for obvious reasons the industrial sector remains the main beneficiary.

Wide range of services

SGS offers a full range of services, which, due to their interconnections, are often difficult to separate. Its core services are those concerning inspections, testing and analysis, to which other services such as certifications and the growing area of environmental services have been added. The company carries out a wide range of inspections, testing and assessments, including quality and quantitative inspections, as well as inspections concerning environmental issues such as emission measurements, indoor environment quality, acoustic emission testing, asbestos and general environmental impact assessments. It also deals with custom documentation checks and sample testing, as well as internal quantitative and qualitative checks.

As mentioned, alongside this it offers several certifications including the ISO range, HACCP, BRC, the Climate Change Program, SGS Sustainable Forestry, CE Marking, the Forestry Certification Program, OHSAS 18001 and many others.

SGS is also engaged in carrying out testing on the quality of goods exchanged in commercial operations and in checking the quality of goods or processes within

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production plants. It also offers outsourcing services, whereby it will run and manage a company’s quality control laboratory as well as offering training services to companies in all the sectors it serves, both with regard to managing systems and to methods of improving the quality of a finished or semifinished product. For instance, in the oil and mineral sector it has helped its clients to understand product issues and how the product could be improved.

Indeed, SGS’s scope of activities is so wide that it has even be involved in awarding the seven stars to the Seven Stars Galleria hotel in Milan, the first independently certified seven-star hotel in the world.

Future potential

Mr Mazzei stressed how, despite the differences in current volumes, no service area is seen as being predominant and that SGS is interested in maintaining a 360-degree range. Because of this, it is always in search of new services to offer as long as they are within the company’s scope of expertise.

He also explained how, in terms of future development, SGS may employ both an organic growth and acquisition strategy and is interested in examining different growth sectors. Currently SGS sees its future macro areas as being those of services for the industrial and renewable energy sectors. Interesting developments are also taking place in the area of environmental services, in which the company carries out services including refuse disposal testing and assessments, as well as land reclamation ground assessments. n