British Retail Consortium

British Retail Consortium
Abbreviation	BRC
Formation	1992
Legal status	Not for profit company
Purpose	Trade organisation for the British retail industry
Location	2nd Floor, 21 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, London, SW1H 9BP
Region served	UK
Director General	Helen Dickinson
Website	British Retail Consortium

The British Retail Consortium (or BRC) is a trade association in the United Kingdom. They represent all forms of retailers from small, independently owned stores to big chain stores and department stores. It represents 80% of retail trade in the UK by turnover.

History

The British Retail Consortium was formed in January 1992 when the British Retailers' Association and the Retail Consortium merged. In 1998 it produced the first edition of the BRC Food Technical Standard and Protocol for food suppliers. This has been widely adopted not just throughout the UK but around the world.

Functions

It campaigns for the retail industry and is the authoritative voice of retail, recognised for its powerful campaigning and influence within government and as a provider of in-depth retail information. In addition, the BRC produce standards that manufacturers have to comply with, in different product areas, such as food, packaging and consumer products. Companies exporting to the UK have to reach the BRC's standards to be certified via their own inspectors. Companies supplying supermarkets with own label food products often have to comply with the BRC standards: they are an industry-wide benchmark for quality and food safety.

BRC Global Standards

It is well known for its global standards in four areas, producing much literature on these topics:

Consumer and industry interests

It monitors the state of the retail industry on a regular schedule, but it has specific interests such as:

External links

News items

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.