11 October 2019

AQS France member of the Kiwa Group

AQS France, an independent inspection body in the food sector, is now part of the Kiwa Group.

With the acquisition of AQS, Kiwa strengthens both its footprint in the international Agro, Feed and Food market and in its French activities, which already includes second and third party auditing for various schemes related to Agro, Feed and Food.

AQS France

AQS France, located in Bordeaux, is an independent inspection body, formerly part of AQS Holding BV of the Netherlands. Its main activities lie within the food sector, mainly performing second and third party audits for producers, distributors and packagers of fruit and vegetables all over France and beyond. Competences include GLOBALG.A.P, IFS and BRC.

In 2018, Kiwa already added the activities of IRIS Contrôle to its portfolio in France; the addition of AQS France is a next step in that development. Kiwa’s accreditations include all of AQS France’s services, which ensures these can continue as they were and executed by the same dedicated employees.

Bright future

Arjon van der Harst, Country Manager of Kiwa France: “We highly value the addition of AQS France to Kiwa as AQS France is one of the main players in the fresh fruits and vegetables market. Furthermore, the entire Agro, Feed, Food market is of strategic importance given its size and considerable growth expectations over the next years. With the acquisition of AQS France, Kiwa is now no. 1 in the GLOBALG.A.P. market in France and amongst the top 3 players in IFS/BRC. We see a bright future.”

Hervé Madéry, general manager of AQS France: “Over the past decade, we have been building a successful company in agro-food related inspection and certification activities. The addition to Kiwa provides AQS France access to an international network of TIC related activities and a platform for further growth.”

Kiwa's Agro, Feed, Food services

For more information about Kiwa's services in the field of Agro, Feed and Food, please have a look at this page