British Retail Consortium

British Retail Consortium

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is the leading trade association representing all retailers, from large multiples to independents. BRC has established a range of Global Standards covering Food Safety, Consumer Products, Packaging and Packaging Materials, and Storage and Distribution. These form part of a leading global product safety and quality certification scheme which is used throughout the world by more than 16,500 certificated suppliers in over 100 countries.

TSO has been providing publishing, design and print services to the BRC since 2002 and has been an integral part of the success of the BRC Global Standards scheme. The portfolio of BRC publications now extends to more than 200 separate titles across 17 languages.

'We have been working very successfully with TSO for a number of years and their support and dedication have helped us to create a truly global safety and quality certification scheme that many international retailers and brand owners adopt to ensure confidence in their manufacturing processes.' Tessa Kelly, BRC Commercial Director

The challenge

To support the certification scheme the BRC produces a series of four Global Standards, along with interpretation, sector-specific and best-practice guidelines.

All of the BRC publications are designed to assist retailers and brand owners in ensuring consistent safety and quality. In the UK, Europe and North America, many retailers and brand owners will only work with suppliers who have gained certification to the appropriate BRC Global Standard.

The BRC required a solution that would make their Standards and guidelines easily accessible to a global audience, enabling customers to order the publications in their own languages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and have their copies delivered to them anywhere in the world.

The solution

TSO conducted a detailed analysis to determine the international market for each publication so that we could concentrate our efforts on producing titles in languages most needed by BRC customers.

As the market size for the Standards and guidelines varies from language to language, TSO produces some of the translations using print-on-demand technology. This reduces wastage and storage costs while ensuring the continuing availability of publications.

TSO also created a bespoke bookshop for the BRC, www.brcbookshop.com, which matches the look and feel of the BRC Global Standards website ensuring a seamless customer experience. All language versions of BRC publications are available from the bookshop, which also gives customers the option to purchase publications in downloadable PDF format, providing instant access to the content.

TSO provides marketing support to the BRC, working closely with them to promote Standards and guidelines to a global audience using the full marketing mix, including direct marketing, digital communications, PR and telesales.

Service mix

• Print-on-demand
• Marketing
• Editorial
• Print production
• PDF production
• Bibliographics
• eCommerce
• Online cataloguing and ordering
• Warehousing and distribution
• Customer services

Results

• The BRC Global Standards and guidelines have been sold in 111 countries worldwide and achieved sales in excess of 90,000 copies
• Using print-on-demand technology and PDF delivery has reduced the amount of waste involved in the production of publications