About the company
History
Parex Limited, based in Atherstone, Warwickshire and employing 70 staff, is a manufacturer of specialist cementitious and epoxy resin-based mortars and renders for the construction industry. Over the years, it has built itself an enviable reputation for forward thinking and innovation. Parex is a customer-driven business providing the highest levels of support, whilst also fully recognising its staff as its greatest resource.
Values
Environmental Ethics
With this customer-driven approach in mind, Parex has been certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 (for Quality Management and Environmental Management respectively) for a number of years. Furthermore, recognising new customer demands, Parex had also recently secured OHSAS 18001 certification for Occupational Health and Safety Management – essentially ‘completing the set’ for its Integrated Business Management System.
Motivations to get BES 6001 Certification
The Company decided to seek BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing certification for its twenty key products. This would send a clear message to everyone in the supply chain, not least to its prospective customers, that Parex truly cares about the environment, business ethics and social factors; actively pursuing projects which minimise any negative impacts and maximise positive contributions in these three areas.
Unlike ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 (which are all company- or site-specific), BES 6001 is a product-specific certification. It is as much about the company’s suppliers as it is about Parex itself and demonstrates Parex’s holistic view over its entire supply chain.
Certification Process
For this particular certification speed was of the essence. The client had set some particularly challenging timescales for the work to be completed. Following the formal acceptance of the proposal on 10th February 2014 and confirmation a few days later that all certification fees had been paid a site visit to Parex’s manufacturing facility was set for 17th February. Following a very successful site visit the certification report was completed and sent to the client on 3rd March in order to ensure that the full extent of their activities had been captured correctly. The report was finalised on 10th March with certification and uploading onto GreenBookLive completed on 13th March.
Outcome
The entire certification process took only 24 working days; 5 working weeks. The speed of the certification process was significantly helped by Parex’s commitment, understanding and preparedness around the type of data required for a successful certification.
Having achieved a ‘Good’ rating for all twenty products, Parex have recognised that its BES 6001 certification gives them a huge edge over their direct competitors. This is particularly beneficial when tendering, as increasing numbers of customers are demanding third party certification of responsible sourcing claims. BES 6001 certification delivers to clients confidence in the validity of Parex’s responsible sourcing credentials.
‘We are particularly proud of this achievement as it demonstrates to our staff, customers and shareholders our commitment to being environmentally responsible.’
Mark Shorrock, Parex’s Managing Director
‘‘The main reason that we were so successful so quickly was that Parex already thinks this way; the mind-set is already here. Everyone, from the Board of Directors down, buys in to it. Also, most of the policies and processes that were necessary to demonstrate compliance were either already in place or just required minor adjustment.’
Iain de Grey, the Senior Manager Lead