In the case where a product is white-labelled for distribution, the BBA offers a solution that means the distributor can also apply for their own BBA certificate for use in their own distribution marketing activity; but only if the original manufacturer of the product has an active certificate for the same product.
The BBA Agrément Certificate relates to a specific product, and a specific organisation, certifying that particular product against a specific set of criteria for a particular use. Each Certificate is unique to the organisation that has requested the certification and testing to be conducted – the output of which is an individual document that complies only to that specific organisation, thus allowing that business to make use of the BBA Certification logo on their products and marketing material.
When a manufacturer white-labels a product, and makes it available for re-branding and resale by another business, although the product itself might be identical, the new business that is re-branding the product, does not have authority to apply the same certificate within their promotional material, as the certificate does not correlate to their business. That’s when we are able to issue a Reproduction Certificate for the distributor to use which means that the distributor has an added benefit to verifying the credibility of the product they’re selling, and the manufacturer that their product complies to the same stringent set of criteria – increasing the value of their market share through their distribution network.
In the case of Reproduction Certificates, for the distributor, maintenance usually means 1 visit per year to the business’ office in order to assess and check the supply chain, and to confirm that the product they’re distributing is still the same product as the originally-certified product, but is simply being relabelled. The process for the manufacturer of that product will be consistent with our standard maintenance schedule of surveillance and 3-year Reviews.