2010-01-01 Aranea merges with Kiwa

Aranea, Sweden’s leading certification body in organic certfication and 100% subsidiary of KRAV, merges with the international Kiwa certification organisation to facilitate one-stop-shopping for its customers. At December 18, in Uppsala, KRAV and Kiwa signed the contract for this new ownership. Kiwa will support Aranea to broaden its service portfolio and provide unlimited access to Kiwa’s international network and accreditations in the agro-food sector. KRAV will focus on developing and monitoring of their standard as well as on marketing of the brand KRAV.

Aranea was established in 2006 by KRAV as its operational entity at arms’ length in inspection and auditing of the KRAV standards for organic farming in Sweden. At the same time, this activity was liberalised so that other certification bodies could also enter that market. By 2009, this inspection activity has developed further, ready for the next level. Meanwhile, Aranea had realised that many farmers and food processors and retailers are interested in a one-stop-shop service, getting more items verified and certified during one visit than just the organic farming aspect.

Win-win for clients
Bengt Persson and Christian Nyrén, Aranea’s chairman and general manager, respectively, are enthusiastic about the merger with Kiwa. Nyrén: "Aranea’s clients need a well established service relation in order to help them as a partner in all aspects of their activities. By adding Kiwa’s BRC, IFS, GlobalGAP and well known certification schemes like ISO 9001, ISO 1400, ISO 22000 and OHSAS, to Aranea’s existing services, Aranea will be in a much better position. Also, as agriculture and food processing have become truly international, Kiwa’s international network throughout Europe and beyond, will also help to serve our Swedish and international clients much better. We at Aranea regard the partnering with Kiwa as a multiple win-win for our clients, for the continuity of our organisation and for our employees. This will make life easier for our clients, since we can offer them full services".

Broadening portfolio
Kiwa CEO Paul Hesselink agrees to this: "Kiwa is becoming a serious player in the EU certification market by broadening its service portfolio and geographical network as requested by Kiwa’s clients. With Aranea as a partner, Kiwa’s presence in Sweden and hopefully the Nordic will be strengthened as well as the certification activities in agriculture and the food sector. Kiwa has some 800 qualified employees and a strong partner network. Kiwa operates from some 30 offices in 9 countries rendering services in 40 countries around the world. In the agro-food sector, Aranea can now offer Kiwa’s certifications like ISO 22.000, HACCP, GMP+, BRC and GlobalGAP. Kiwa can now offer such international certification schemes in addition to highly esteemed and practical national and regional ones like IP Sigill in Sweden or like IGP Citrus, Natursense and Naturane in Spain. The Kiwa group itself supplements its service range in sectors like water, energy & gas, building& construction, automotive and health care with a stronger position in agro-food. This is becoming a unique service offering to the European countries".

Focus on standards
As KRAV’s chairman Bo Berg and director Lars Nellmer put it: "KRAV can now fully focus on the standards in organic farming itself: their content, quality, compliance and innovation. This is what KRAV was established for. We are convinced that Kiwa is the right owner of Aranea, in order to build a solid future. We as KRAV might even benefit from the interaction with such an internationally experienced organisation".

Kiwa Nordic Holding AB, of which Aranea is now part, will provide the Swedish and Nordic markets with its broad service assortment in due course. That assortment consists of certification, inspection, testing strengthened by training and technology focusing on certification services for management systems, persons, processes and products.

The merger between Aranea and Kiwa has been established with support of Solving IMCG, a Solving Efeso company active in management consultancy.

For information:
Aranea:
Christian Nyrén, CEO, +46 18 170001
christian.nyren@araneacert.se 

KRAV:
Bo Berg, Chairman, + 46 705 749605
Lars Nellmer, CEO, + 46 18 174501
lars.nellmer@krav.se 

Kiwa NV:
George Mentjox, Head Kiwa CorpCom, +31 6533 15701
gm@kiwa.nl