Red Sea Paints Company, a joint venture of an international paint technologist and Marie bin Mahfouz Al Amoudi, has been accredited with the ISO 9001:2000 certification for its quality systems.

The Jeddah-based company is one of the oldest and leading players in the paint market for more than 25 years. The move towards accreditation was made in the firm's quest to enhance customer satisfaction, according to general manager Tor Johansen.

"ISO 9001:2000 focuses more on performance than conformance - which will ultimately benefit the end-users in terms of continual improvement of product quality, business processes and tangible benefit to all interest groups with regard to safety, health and environment," he explains. "The process of achieving this mammoth task was undertaken entirely within a span of four months. This project was led by the company's business systems manager Ravi Vattakassery and QA (quality assurance) coordinator Chetan Shah."

Red Sea Paints relies on raw material manufacturers and suppliers which are recognised for their quality and reliability - and this is one reason that the company also have been accredited with the Saso (Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation) mark of quality, he says. The company also endeavours to keep abreast of the requirements of the market.

"This futurist vision of the company is sure to benefit customers, especially in the industrial segment, which relies heavily on the technical back-up of the company," he adds.