New year heralds new horizons for BSI
Press release - 28 January 2011
LONDON, UK – New horizons lie open to BSI and its clients in the New Year. At the close of 2010, BSI completed the acquisition of partner companies in both Indonesia and Italy, having set up offices in Qatar and Saudi Arabia earlier in the year. Driven by its strategy to penetrate new geographies, BSI is looking to increase its global presence in key high growth economies and offer local consumers more accessible, region-specific services.
“The fact that BSI’s clients are all across the globe has been a major driving factor behind our international growth strategy,” says BSI's CEO, Howard Kerr. “The ability to serve global and local clients in these countries in their own language and environment is of the utmost importance to BSI.”
At the close of 2010, BSI extended its presence in Italy and Indonesia through the procurement of BSS Italia and SMI. Since 2007, BS Services Italia S.r.l (BSS) has partnered with BSI as one of its key sales agents in Italy and on 31 December 2010, BSI acquired BSS’s certification business. Likewise, BSI Singapore secured Systems Management Indonesia (SMI) to strengthen its service capacity for Asian consumers.
These acquisitions will strengthen BSI’s working relationship with both Indonesian and Italian companies while expanding international coverage for global clients looking to Indonesia and to Italy as potential markets. At the same time, BSI will also be able to give international credibility to local clients and open the market to global players with its standards-based solutions that help companies grow.
"SMI opens the door for exciting opportunities as Indonesia is one of the largest markets by population and one of the fastest growing economies in the world," says Howard Kerr. "In addition, Italy is the largest certification market in Europe, so these two acquisitions strengthen BSI's position in two key strategic markets". These most recent additions to BSI Group continue its growth strategy of adding new geographies to its expanding global network.
These latest two acquisitions build on progress earlier in the year, when the Group expanded its presence in the Middle East. BSI opened an office in Qatar in order to work alongside Qatar Petroleum, who recently awarded BSI with its certification contracts for the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 assessments. Similarly, in 2010, BSI signed a contract with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) to ensure the safety measures of imported medical equipment according to international standards. This contract enabled BSI to set up a new company in Saudi Arabia that would verify the certification of medical devices.
“The developing nature of the Middle East provides a valuable opportunity for BSI to expand both its assessment and training businesses, while introducing testing services and Entropy® Software to consumers in the region,” says Rob Wallis, BSI's EMEA Managing Director.
