SGS (formerly Société Générale de Surveillance (French for ''General Society of Surveillance'')) is a Swiss multinational company headquartered in Geneva, which provides

inspection An inspection is, most generally, an organized examination or formal evaluation exercise. In engineering activities inspection involves the measurements, tests, and gauges applied to certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity. ...

, verification,

testing An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...

and

certification Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

services. It has more than 96,000 employees and operates over 2,600 offices and laboratories worldwide. It ranked on

Forbes Global 2000 The ''Forbes'' Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world, published by ''Forbes'' magazine. "The Global 2000" annual ranking is assembled by ''Forbes'' using a weighted assessment of four metrics: sales, profit ...

in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. The core services offered by SGS include the inspection and verification of the quantity, weight and quality of traded goods, the testing of product quality and performance against various health, safety and regulatory standards, and to make sure that products, systems or services meet the requirements of standards set by governments, standardization bodies or by SGS customers.

History

International traders in London, including those from France, Germany and the Netherlands, the Baltic, Hungary, the Mediterranean and the United States, founded the London Corn Trade Association in 1878 in order to standardize shipping documents for exporting nations and to clarify procedures and disputes relating to the quality of imported grain. In the same year, SGS was founded in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

, France, by Henri Goldstuck, a young Latvian immigrant who, having seen the opportunities at one of the country’s largest ports, began to inspect French grain shipments. With the aid of Captain Maxwell Shafftington, he borrowed money from an Austrian friend to start inspecting the shipments arriving in Rouen as, during transit, losses showed in the volume of grain as a result of shrinkage and theft. The service inspected and verified the quantity and quality of the grain on arrival with the importer. Business grew rapidly; the two entrepreneurs went into business together in December 1878 and, within a year, had opened offices in Le Havre, Dunkirk and Marseilles. In 1915, during the First World War, the company moved its headquarters from Paris to Geneva, Switzerland, and on July 19, 1919 the company adopted the name Société Générale de Surveillance. During the mid-20th century, SGS started offering inspection, testing and verification services across a variety of sectors, including industrial, minerals and oil, gas and chemicals, among others. In 1981, the company went public. It is a component of the

SMI MID The SMI MID (SMIM) is a stock index which lists Switzerland's mid-cap companies. The index is calculated by SIX Swiss Exchange. It includes the 30 Prime Standard shares from sectors that rank immediately below the companies included in the Swiss ...

Index.

Operations

The company works in the following industries: agriculture and food, chemical, construction, consumer goods and retail, energy, finance, industrial manufacturing, life sciences, logistics, mining, oil and gas, public sector and transportation. In 2004, in collaboration with SGS, the '' Institut d'Administration des Entreprises'' (IAE France University Management Schools) Network developed Qualicert, a tool for evaluating university management training and establishing a new international benchmark. The Qualcert accreditation was approved by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), the Directorate General of Higher Education (DGES) and the Conference of University Presidents (CPU). Focused on continuous quality improvement, Qualicert is now in its sixth revision.

Awards and recognition

* Ranked by ''

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'' in 2017 as a Top Multinational Performer and one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. * Named Professional Services industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World and Europe for six consecutive years between 2014-2019, receiving a score of 83/100, in comparison to the sector average of 38/100. * In 2015,

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ranked the company's Code of Integrity in the top ten among Swiss companies. The company also joined RE100, a global group of companies convened by The Climate Group and

Carbon Disclosure Project The CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) is an international non-profit organisation based in the United Kingdom, Japan, India, China, Germany and the United States of America that helps companies and cities disclose their environmental i ...

that aims to generate their energy fully from renewable sources.

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sgs Service companies of Switzerland Companies based in Geneva Multinational companies headquartered in Switzerland Commercial laboratories Product certification Companies established in 1878 Product-testing organizations Laboratories in Switzerland Swiss companies established in 1878 Companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange