How much does certification cost you?

I'd like to be earning half of what some Certification Bodies charge per day. A quick thumb through the procedures manual a stroll around the factory, a few knowing looks and a couple of uhms and ahs and kerching the best part of a grand thank you very much

I thought it would be interesting and perhaps useful if we shared information on how much certification to the various standards such as ISO 9000, BRC Food, IFS, BRC Packaging etc. costs.

What Standards are you certified to?
Which Certification Body do you use?
How much do they charge?
What do you get for your money?
Who buys lunch?

Regards,
Simon

I don't want to give full details (i.e. Audit company) but here are mine.

What Standards are you certified to?

BRC / IFS

Which Certification Body do you use?

Not telling (at the moment)

How much do they charge?

BRC Just under £1000 + mileage
IFS Just under £2500 + mileage

What do you get for your money?

BRC - One day audit, printed audit report and certificate, the right to use the audit company's logo on promotional material, letterheads, etc.

IFS - Two day audit, emailed audit report, printed certificate, alot of headaches , no holiday for 6 months.

Who buys lunch?

We do for both. Usually sandwiches from the local M&S.

I don't want to give full details (i.e. Audit company)

Don't wimp out on us now Yorky.

BRC Just under £1000 + mileage
IFS Just under £2500 + mileage

BRC - One day audit, printed audit report and certificate, the right to use the audit company's logo on promotional material, letterheads, etc.

Great set of extras Yorky, what about if you want them to email the audit report to Tesco - is it extra £££?

We do for both. Usually sandwiches from the local M&S.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good choice young man - chicken and bacon submarine roll please.

Regards,
Simon

Great set of extras Yorky, what about if you want them to email the audit report to Tesco - is it extra £££?

We don't make any own label products at our company therefore the supermarkets don't have the right to a copy of the report - we only send them a copy of the certificate. I'm not sure if you need to pay extra for this service.

Does no-one else have a BRC or IFS audit?

Does no-one else have a BRC or IFS audit?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

By outing your prices - you may get a reduction - which could lead to a pay increase.

Come on don't be shy. It would also be good to compare certification costs in other countries for the different schemes.

Regards,
Simon

Simon,

What about adding a poll? Then people could put their prices on and might not be so shy

Do you really think so? Feel free to add a poll, but which certificate are we talking about - BRC?

Simon

I'd like to be earning half of what some Certification Bodies charge per day.  A quick thumb through the procedures manual a stroll around the factory, a few knowing looks and a couple of uhms and ahs and kerching the best part of a grand thank you very much

I thought it would be interesting and perhaps useful if we shared information on how much certification to the various standards such as ISO 9000, BRC Food, IFS, BRC Packaging etc. costs.

What Standards are you certified to?
Which Certification Body do you use?
How much do they charge?
What do you get for your money?
Who buys lunch?

Regards,
Simon

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Hi Simon,
Its a good job I know you very well or it might be cream puffs at dawn.
I 'm sure you are intentionally being provocative, but as a BRC evaluator for the past six years I have to respond.
1. The protocol states that we must audit for at least a day and a half plus the report - present indications are that the report will shortly be required to be at least 34 pages long
2.. UKAs audit us at great length, looking at our notes (six plus pages long) to ensure that we have thoroughly audited every element of the standard.
3. It is now half past nine in the evening; I have been on the road since dawn this morning and I am just about to finish work for the day.
Our prices for assessment and certification are standard and are available to anyone who fills in the enquiry sheet on the web-site www.qai.co.uk. They are much less than £1000 for the day
Just for interest , accreditation cost several tens of thousands of pounds. we are subject to audit by UKAS and their costs are much higher than ours.
For this I pay myself a pittance.
Very best wishes
Brian Fowler

Hi Simon,
Its a good job I know you very well or it might be cream puffs at dawn.

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No, no please not again.

You're right I was being provocative, I agree it can be a very long day. Listen I know you're cheap Brian but how far below a grand are your charges.

Thanks for your input.

Regards,
Simon

No, no please not again.

You're right I was being provocative, I agree it can be a very long day.  Listen I know you're cheap Brian but how far below a grand are your charges.

Thanks for your input.

Regards,
Simon

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For a small company £450, for a large company £250

Brian

For a small company £450, for a large company £250

Brian

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A very good deal for small companies. An even better deal for large ones. I'm assuming the £250 for large companies is a typo?

Is that your total annual cost (minus expenses) for maintaining Certification - I presume based on 1 audit per year.

Regards,
Simon

Hi,
Here is some information that might interest you. Found in this powerpoint presentation from the FCD (Fédération du Commerce et de la Distribution) website. FCD is the French retailers organization that developped the 4th version of IFS with HDE (German retailers organization).

Quote from the presentation: (I hope it's ok to quote external sources like that... if not feel free to delete this!!)

L'expérience des distributeurs allemands :
- environ 1700 audits sur le portail,
-  en moyenne 2 000 €, rapport compris (pour en moyenne 1,5 jours d'audit sur site),
- 150 € de coût de mise du rapport sur le site Internet (par l'organisme de certification).

Translation: According to the German retailers' experience:
- there have been about 1700 audits recorded on their auditportal (It's this thing)
- an average cost of 2,000 €, including the cost of the report (for an average audit duration of 1 day and a half)
- an average cost of 150€ for the publication of the report on the website (by the certification body)

The presentation was made in October 2004 at the SIAL in Paris.

Thanks for the information Skywalker.

An average cost of 2,000 €, including the cost of the report (for an average audit duration of 1 day and a half)

The above is probably a little more than we are finding in the UK for BRC Food & Packaging Audits. Probably £800 - £1,200 for the same 1 day and a half.

Unless you get Brian Fowler to do it.

Regards,
Simon

Need cert in about 6 months would like recommendation for el cheapo audit.

Cheerio,
Pacman

Unless your customers prefer a particular Certification Body you specifying the cheapest is OK as all CB's are accredited. This means they should undertake an identical audit and provide a very similar service. The style and personality of the auditor is very important but is less easy to know what you're getting until the audit. However, you are the customer and if you don't like him or her you can always ask for a change or failing that change you're CB - there are plenty of them.

Accredited Certification Bodies for the BRC Global Standard - Food Packaging

You will find that prices range from around £750 - £1,200 per audit.

Regards,
Simon

Hallo Skywalker,

i can confirm the figures of the HDE.
An interesting addon is, that the handbook of the HDE audit portal
claims that they would also present BRC certificates, i tried to get our
certificate online but didnt´t get any answers.

I seem that I`m the only one to read the fine print of this handbbok.

Regards

Flavour

Our company is trying to reduce cost and all managers are charged with reducing cost in our own area of responsibility. As QA Manager I deal with all of the hygiene and quality systems and accreditation. We are UK BRC/IoP approved and have an annual audit currently costing £1,500 a year. Is this good or can I do better? I found this old topic via google and appreciate it is a few years old.

Our company is trying to reduce cost and all managers are charged with reducing cost in our own area of responsibility. As QA Manager I deal with all of the hygiene and quality systems and accreditation. We are UK BRC/IoP approved and have an annual audit currently costing £1,500 a year. Is this good or can I do better? I found this old topic via google and appreciate it is a few years old.

hi
its cheaper than we pay £1821.24 we payed for this years audit

hi
its cheaper than we pay £1821.24 we payed for this years audit

Sounds expensive, at £1,800 for a day and a half's work, maybe I should be doing BRC Audits for a living

hi
its cheaper than we pay £1821.24 we payed for this years audit

I feel better already. Is that for one site and one day on site by the auditor?

I cannot understand where they get the prices from, CB's have some costs for accreditation and maybe some costs from BRC but £1,500 - £1,800 for what is essentially a couple of days work with the audit, report and follow up on CA's etc.
Oh and travel and some admin. OK I think about £1,500 is just about the top end, probably £1,200 - £1,500 for a single site, one day audit is fair.