IHA Partners with Intertek as Preferred Service Provider

05 Mar 2009

The International Housewares Association (IHA) announced today that it is partnering with Intertek, a leading international provider of quality and safety solutions, as a new preferred service provider. Intertek will offer IHA members testing, certification, auditing and quality assurance services. In addition, IHA members will receive a 15 percent savings on global testing done by Intertek.

Intertek enables customers to increase speed to market, reduce overall cost of product, create scalability and optimize their supply chain through a vast range of services such as product safety testing and certification, inspection, auditing, performance evaluation, training, risk assessment and custom quality assurance solutions. As a distinct benefit, IHA members will have access to Intertek’s leading certification products, such as its ETL Listed Mark, North America’s fastest growing product safety certification. What’s more, with Intertek’s new Quality & Performance label scheme, IHA members may use independent performance testing as a competitive differentiator and a point-of-purchase sales tool.

“Our partnership with Intertek will meet the evolving needs of our members by providing global support, local reach and innovative expertise,” said Phil Brandl, IHA president.

Intertek has a network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices with over 24,000 people in 110 countries around the world to support members across the globe in setting, meeting, maintaining and evolving quality, safety and performance standards.

Gene Rider, president of Intertek Consumer Goods North America, explains, “Intertek is honored to provide not only value-added solutions to IHA members but also the competitive advantage they need to operate in diverse markets in which they source, manufacture and sell their products.”

Intertek will be at booth # S4372 in the Industry Service Provider’s Pavilion at the upcoming International Home and Housewares Show at McCormick Place in Chicago from March 22 – 24, 2009. This event is the world's largest homegoods & housewares marketplace, showcasing thousands of new products and designs. Intertek will also be actively participating in the show’s exclusive “Design Directions: Going Green” display where Intertek experts will be on hand to answer questions about sustainability in today’s global marketplace.

Further information about Intertek’s services is available at http://www.housewares.org/iha/benefits/intertek.aspx

Contacts

For further information on Intertek, please contact:

Julie Naujokas, Marketing & Communications Director
Telephone: +1 630 481 3114
Julie.naujokas@intertek.com

For further information on IHA, please contact:

Deborah A. Teschke, Media Relations & Communications
Telephone: +1 847 692 0110
dteschke@housewares.org