Abacus Group achieves RoHS Trusted Kitemark®

The Kitemark® was awarded after a three month independent audit that verified not only Abacus Group’s business processes for maintaining up to date information on each of the 1.7 million line items on its system, but also the knowledge and awareness of its staff.

Kitemark®: signifies a supplier you can trust

Greg Nicol, Group Purchasing Director, commented, “Our Kitemark® gives customers and suppliers confidence that we are a supplier that they can trust, and that we have rigorous processes implemented by staff that understand both the regulations and our system correctly. We have invested significantly in IT, logistics and staff training, to ensure that customers are provided with the most accurate available information on the current status of each and every part on their Bill of Materials.”

He added, “Obtaining independent validation from BSI demonstrates that the compliance processes that we have implemented over the past few years are excellent. Gaining it was a significant achievement, as a Kitemark® is not awarded lightly. One of the steps we had to go through was to demonstrate that our RoHS procedures had been integrated fully with our quality system, for example.”

The RoHS Trusted Kitemark®

The Kitemark® covers Abacus Group’s Electronic Component Distribution (ECD) operations in the UK, including Deltron, which has already been migrated onto the Abacus Business System. The RoHS Trusted Kitemark® has been developed using a combination of the publicly available specification EIA/ECCB-954 and a formal protocol that has been specifically developed for the RoHS Directive.

Simon T. Bircham, Electronics and Electrical Product Manager at BSI Product Services said, “By gaining the BSI RoHS Trusted Kitemark® Abacus have demonstrated that they understand the requirements of the Directive and will now be able to reassure customers that all electronic components they distribute are compliant. The RoHS Trusted Kitemark® will also confirm Abacus’s position as a market leader and enable them to gaining clear commercial advantages by differentiating themselves from their competitors.”

About Abacus Group plc

Abacus Group plc is a leading regional distributor of electronic components and value-added systems in Europe, with directly owned companies having locations in every major European electronics market.

Abacus is structured as three business divisions:

• Abacus ECD which encompasses component distribution activities
• Displays, encompassing Abacus’ displays distribution businesses
•  Abacus MFG, offering value added services. 

Abacus ECD has a portfolio in excess of 100 franchises within seven trading companies:

• Abacus Polar
• Deltron
• Micromark C&CD
• TDC
• Abacus Promax
• Abacus ECC
• RDI.

The displays division includes both Trident and Axess and provides specialist distribution and value added services.  Abacus MFG offers a range of electromechanical sub contract manufacture, under three trading companies: Emcon, CTL and CCS. It also encompasses Dubilier, its own brand offering passives, emech components and batteries, and Eledis offering own brand switches.