Campofrio Food : Campofrío certifies the excellence of its Purchasing function Standard, UNE 15896

During the event held in Madrid, the Spanish Association of Purchasing, Contracting and Procurement (AERCE), awarded Fernando Sanfiz, Purchasing Director at Campofrío Food Group, the certificate granted by Bureau Veritas, for Standard, UNE 15896 for Value Added Purchasing Management, thus recognising the excellence in the management of the Group's Purchasing process, also making this the first European company to obtain it the certificate.

The Standard UNE 15896 for Value Added Purchasing Management, transposing European Purchasing regulation UNE 15896: Value Added Purchasing Management is the first supranational standard in terms of Purchasing. The European Purchasing Standard is the result of the hard work of the European Purchasing associations, promoted by AERCE, which have brought together best business practices in Purchasing to offer those in charge of these departments a guide to help them direct their companies towards excellence. Certifying the excellent work of the Purchasing department is equivalent to guaranteeing the long-term development of the company.

This Standard enables companies to obtain common criteria with which to measure the level of their Purchasing management methods, define a continuous improvement process and compare the different processes being applied in leading European companies.

Fernando Sanfiz, director of Purchases in Campofrío Food Group, explains that 'Campofrío decided to begin the certification process for the Purchasing Standard UNE 15896 with the aim of highlighting the excellence of our management and process model within the department, but also with the aim of improving the service that we provide for our internal customers. It was the right time, after large investments in the new factory; we also needed to guarantee the transparency and fairness of the award processes with all our potential suppliers'.

'Thanks to this new process, we have been able to identify new improvement points in our procedures. At the same time, after undergoing the 'stress test' to measure the degree of excellence of our purchasing model, we were able to verify our high level of quality', commented Sanfiz, who concluded by saying that 'personally and on behalf of the purchasing team, I would like to highlight the excellent work carried out over the last 10 months and the importance of having obtained this new certification, which showcases the work of the entire department and the need to fulfil the processes established from the start'.

Fullstep, the Purchasing specialist with the greatest number of resources certified by AERCE for the implementation of the Standard, was the company that designed and executed the project together with Campofrío to obtain the aforementioned UNE 15896 certificate.

In the words of Iván Martín, director of the Standard UNE 15896 project, 'for Aerce it is great news that a company like Campofrío Food Group has decided to initiate this exciting journey towards excellence by obtaining this certification via this Standard. One of AERCE's main priorities has always been to develop the Purchasing function as a lever for promoting the results of organisations and we can undoubtedly say that the Standard UNE 15896 is the best way of doing so. AERCE would like to congratulate the entire purchasing team at Campofrío and in particular the director, Fernando Sanfiz, for achieving this milestone. This is not the finish line; it is the start of an exciting one-way journey toward excellence'.