Hit Promotional Products Explains How QCA Accreditation Provides The Backbone For Its Compliance Program
For Hit Promotional Products, it is not possible to become a Top 10 promotional products industry supplier without going the extra mile. However, this above-and-beyond effort is more significant than customer service and product offerings. There’s an intangible, yet substantial, component that’s the backbone of the company’s philosophy: Brand Safety.
Consistently delivering safe, high-quality, socially compliant and environmentally conscientious merchandise is no easy task when there are 1,400+ employees and more than 1,300 products in 16 major product categories which include: caps, bags, totes and cooler bags, writing instruments, drinkware and leisure items as well as a recent emphasis on new lines of personal care and portable, on-the-go electronic items. With this many moving parts, it is essential to have a robust program to ensure compliance on all fronts.
In this week’s Partners In Brand Safety conversation, we chatted with Nathan Cotter, the company’s compliance manager, to find out what they have learned by going through the QCA Accreditation Program and how a focus on brand safety has impacted the business.
1. What does brand safety mean to you?
At Hit, brand safety means going the extra mile to ensure that the products we offer to some of the largest brands in the world are designed, tested and inspected to limit product safety risk as much as possible. This includes a thorough review of design and materials during product development, robust QC checks both overseas and domestically, testing with a trusted third-party laboratory when applicable, and continued testing via our internal testing workshop.
2. How has QCA Accreditation benefitted/improved your company?
QCA Accreditation has helped Hit to develop the backbone of our product development, quality control, product safety and responsible sourcing programs.
3. How difficult/rigorous did you find the program to be?
Having been through re-accreditation with Hit, as well as initial accreditation with the Admints product offering, I can say that both are quite rigorous. Be it the development of programs, processes, and controls or the ongoing maintenance of those programs along with the expectations in our supply chain; it has become how Hit as a company does business.
4. What was the biggest lesson(s) learned about product safety, social responsibility, etc.?
QCA Accreditation has really driven the further development of Hit’s product development, quality assurance, product safety and supply chain accountability programs. The overall lesson has been the general importance of having well defined and developed processes in all of these areas.
5. What type of company would benefit most from going through the Accreditation program?
Any company in the promotional product industry could benefit from the QCA Accreditation process. As mentioned in previous answers, the process really lends to developing formal and defined programs throughout the company.
