THE Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has awarded Chellarams Plc the NIS ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certification.

With the new development, the food and chemical divisions of the group have now been internationally certified.

Presenting the certificate to the company’s Chairman, Asiwaju Solomon Onafowokan, in Lagos at the weekend, SON’s Director-General, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, who lauded the firm for the feat of bagging the award at first attempt, tasked it on sustaining the quality which the brand had been identified, noting that “quality is a moving target”.

Represented by the organisation’s Executive Director, Laboratory Services, Mr. Louis Njoku, Odumodu reminded the company that the award was not a fait accompli as it is subjected to six-month audits to ensure compliance with provisions of the certification, warning that it could be withdrawn in the face of intractable infractions and non-conformities.

He said: “The relevance of quality management in the current competitive market environment cannot be over-emphasised. The NIS ISO9001: 2008 Quality Management System approach provides a globally recognised and acceptable solution to the challenges associated with quality management.

“The system has been placed on six monthly surveillance audit to ensure continuing suitability and effectiveness of the implementation of the quality management system. In the cause of the audit exercises, where non-conformities are observed and effectively corrected within specified time frame, the system will retain the certificate. However, the certificate will be withdrawn if the structures in the place for certification break down and necessary actions are not taken on observed non-conformances,” Odumodu cautioned.

Onafowokan, in his acceptance speech, assured SON of improving on the standard that gave room for the award.