Fluent in good business practice

As a main distributor of Swagelok Company and Kenmac products, Aberdeen Fluid System Technologies is a leading supplier of fluid system components. With headquarters in Aberdeen and newly acquired premises in Irvine, the business serves a wide range of market sectors throughout Scotland - from oil, gas and power to paper, pharmaceutical and food processing industries.

Contracts are managed by a highly motivated team of 20 staff, working in areas of customer support, field sales engineering and supply chain management. This innovative company is totally committed to providing the very best working conditions and team welfare support. As a result of their efforts to combat stress in the workplace, Aberdeen Fluid System Technologies won ‘Best Small Business’ in the prestigious national awards, part of the European Week for Safety and Health campaign, which is promoted in the UK by the Health & Safety Executive. In December 2003 they also received a commendation from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency for their entry in the 2003 VIBES national environmental award competition.

As a highly professional company committed to meeting ISO9001:2000 quality standards, they also recognise the importance of good environmental management practice and in February 2002 set out to achieve ISO14000 certification.

As Managing Director, Gerry Farrell explained, “We have based a key element of our business strategy on our ability to demonstrate to our customers and to our people that our registration to International Standards is our route to continual improvement and also to ever higher levels of the service we provide as an organisation.

“ISO14001 brings us a distinct competitive advantage. You don’t have to be a large corporation to gain the benefits that are available from having world-class management systems. We are a small business with the vision of continued and sustainable growth. We want to be viewed by our customers and our own suppliers as different and as a company that can help deliver service excellence and add value. IMSM/QAS are helping us to deliver this vision.”

When asked why Aberdeen Fluid System Technologies chose IMSM, Mr Farrell told us, “During the first half of 2002 we carried out a business review on the provision of our standards registration support services. Our incumbent service provider (a major international company) had lost focus on us as a customer and had stopped ‘listening’ to us. We were looking for a best total cost and service solution and IMSM/QAS demonstrated to us their ability to deliver this. We are now looking forward to further strengthening our relationship with IMSM/QAS over the longer term.”