ISS Celebrates ISO Accreditation in M.East and Africa

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), the world’s leading maritime services provider, is celebrating the awards of ISO 22000:2005 – Food Safety Management System and ISO 9001:2008 for the company’s supply chain operations in Dubai, Mombasa and Mogadishu. Ceremonies recently took place at its global headquarters in the UK and in its regional Head Office in Dubai.

As a pre-requisite to fulfilling the requirements of a three year (plus two year option) contract with the United Nations to supply the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), ISS had to meet a number of operational criteria relating to the procurement, supply chain management, transportation, warehousing and distribution of food to the Mission.

To enable the ISS (United Nations Support Office in Africa - UNSOA) team to demonstrate its operational competence and its commitment to ongoing continuous improvement, it initiated the ISO certification process in August 2013 and set itself a very short time frame of only six months to achieve full accreditation.

Key to the success of the project was the erection and development of a warehouse facility within the Mogadishu International Airport site into a hub for effectively managing the supply chain to the peacekeeping forces in the country, initially numbering 12,000 troops but today significantly more.

The construction of the ISS warehouse, built from the ground up in very challenging conditions, was completed in September 2013. The facility includes dry, frozen and chilled capacity in excess of 4,000 square metres and enables the delivery of provisions, water and fresh bread to the Mission.

Concurrently an additional warehouse in Mombasa was leased to support ISS commercial and NGO efforts in Mogadishu, with an operating capacity of over 1200 square meters. Combined, both of these facilities position ISS as the largest volume container management company in the region.  

On receiving the ISO certificates from Mr David Riggs, Group Chairman of the URS Group who supported ISS through the accreditation process, ISS Group CEO Capt. Claus Hyldager said: “It gives me great pleasure to accept these certificates on behalf of the ISS UNSOA project team. This is a fantastic achievement which reflects the hard work and dedication of our staff in Mogadishu, Mombasa and Dubai.  ISO 22000:2005 is a prestigious certificate and to achieve this in a normal operating environment would be challenging enough, but to do this in an area of conflict is remarkable.”

Ian Tombs, Head of ISS Corporate Compliance echoed Capt. Hyldager’s remarks and added: “Being the first UN contract of its type for ISS meant it was a steep learning curve for the project team. Successfully gaining certification so rapidly in such a challenging and dangerous location, such as the war zone in Somalia is an endorsement of ISS’ commitment to quality, continuous improvement, and a highly customer-focussed approach to business. Our staff should be very proud of their unique achievements.”