SGS (formerly Société Générale de Surveillance (French for General Society of Surveillance)) is a multinational company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland which provides inspection, verification, testing and certification services. It has more than 95,000 employees and operates over 2,400 offices and laboratories worldwide. It ranked on Forbes Global 2000 in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The core services offered by SGS include the inspection and verification of the quantity, weight and quality of traded goods, the testing of product quality and performance against various health, safety and regulatory standards, and to make sure that products, systems or services meet the requirements of standards set by governments, standardization bodies or by SGS customers.
Video SGS S.A.
History
International traders in London, including those from France, Germany and the Netherlands, the Baltic, Hungary, the Mediterranean and the United States, founded the London Corn Trade Association in 1878 in order to standardize shipping documents for exporting nations and to clarify procedures and disputes relating to the quality of imported grain.
In the same year, SGS was founded in Rouen, France, by Henri Goldstuck, a young Latvian immigrant who, having seen the opportunities at one of the country's largest ports, began to inspect French grain shipments. With the aid of Captain Maxwell Shafftington, he borrowed money from an Austrian friend to start inspecting the shipments arriving in Rouen as, during transit, losses showed in the volume of grain as a result of shrinkage and theft. The service inspected and verified the quantity and quality of the grain on arrival with the importer.
Business grew rapidly; the two entrepreneurs went into business together in December 1878 and, within a year, had opened offices in Le Havre, Dunkirk and Marseilles.
In 1915, during the First World War, the company moved its headquarters from Paris to Geneva, Switzerland and on July 19, 1919 the company adopted the name Société Générale de Surveillance.
During the mid-20th century, SGS started offering inspection, testing and verification services across a variety of sectors, including industrial, minerals and oil, gas and chemicals, among others. In 1981, the company went public and in 1985 joined the Swiss Market Index.
Maps SGS S.A.
Operations
The company works in the following industries: agriculture and food, automotive, aviation, chemical, construction, consumer goods and retail, energy, finance, industrial manufacturing, life sciences, logistics, mining, oil and gas, and public sector.
Awards and recognition
- Ranked by Forbes as 2017 Top Multinational Performers
- Forbes ranked SGS in the world's most innovative companies in 2017.
- Ranked by Dow Jones Sustainability Indices as a 2017 and 2016 Industry Leader in Commercial & Professional Services for its sustainability processes.
- KPMG ranked the SGS Code of Integrity in the top ten among Swiss companies in 2015.
- In 2015, the company joined RE100, a global group of companies that aims to generate their energy fully from renewable sources.
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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