LGC acquires BRCGS
- LGC expands its supply chain assurance offering, creating a new business unit within its Standards division to focus on this growing market
- BRCGS' activities are highly complementary to LGC’s existing capabilities in reference standards, proficiency testing and sports supplements supply chain assurance
- BRCGS' benefits from LGC’s global network to develop further in new territories and accelerate its transition into a consumer and brand protection solutions leader
Today, LGC announced that it has completed the acquisition of BRCGS (formally BRC Global Standards), the world’s largest provider of safety and quality standards programmes for food and non-food manufacture, packaging, storage, and distribution, based in London. The acquisition marks the next stage in BRCGS’ strategic transition from being a standards owner to a brand and consumer protection organisation, with a range of products and services to help its customers deal with the challenges of producing safe, high quality products for the end consumer on a global basis.
BRCGS’ written Standards across food safety, packing & packaging, storage & distribution, agents & brokers and consumer products underpin the achievement of consistent quality, safety and operational standards throughout the supply chain, providing protection for the end consumer. Compliance with BRCGS is now often a fundamental requirement of leading retailers, manufacturers and quick service restaurants.
Euan O’Sullivan, Managing Director of LGC’s Standards Division, said: “We are delighted to be adding BRCGS to our Standards division. BRCGS is a globally recognised and respected brand and its capabilities are highly complementary to LGC’s existing strengths across reference standards, proficiency testing and sports supplements supply chain assurance. We look forward to working with BRCGS’ Management to continue internationalising the business while developing new and innovative solutions to meet our customers’ needs.”
Commenting on the acquisition Mark Proctor, CEO of BRCGS said: “We are delighted to have LGC as the new owner of our business since it has an international presence to support our growth plans and a customer base who will benefit from our services. This investment will also enable us to save more lives by expanding our product offering and cementing our position as a recognised global leader in consumer and brand protection solutions”
The investment will fuel international growth planned by BRCGS over the next five years to add to its existing presence in the UK, India and US; enable investigation of wider consumer and brand protection solutions including health and safety, predictive analytics and ethical trading; and underpin planned investment in IT development to enable real time business intelligence for supply chains. The same successful management team who have grown the company into the thriving international business it is today will lead this transition.
BRCGS has historically been developed as a division of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which remains a minority shareholder in the business going forwards. Their programme is used by over 25,000 certificated suppliers in 123 countries, with certification issued through a worldwide network of accredited certification bodies. BRC will have a seat on BRCGS’ Board to ensure continuity and stability for customers and specifiers.
LGC’s Standards division is a leading manufacturer and distributor of reference materials, clinical calibration and verification materials and proficiency testing schemes, supporting customers worldwide with their quality assurance requirements.