The British Retail Consortium (BRC) will break new ground by introducing a Chinese version of its global standard for consumer products in Asia later this month.

The BRC Global Standard - Consumer Products (Issue 2) will officially be launched by the BRC, BSI Management Systems and Intertek UK at supplier briefings in Guangzhou, on April 17 and 18.

The standard is well-established and widely used by retailers in the UK and overseas, including Tesco, Metro, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Ahold, Waitrose, Co-op and Migros. The internationalisation of the retailer network is facilitating the standard’s extension to new regions.

BRC designed its standard for users to demonstrate compliance with the EU general product safety directive 2005.

The aim is to enable supermarket suppliers to optimise their use of factory preparation time, staff hours and audit costs for their customers, and eventually bring down the total cost of doing business with EU retailers.