The Rail division of FirstGroup, the UK and North America’s leading transport operator, remains an industry leader in managing its relationships with its suppliers and encouraging effective, collaborative business partnerships, according to the British Standards Institute.
In the first review since gaining the accreditation in 2012, First Rail has retained the prestigious British standard BS 11000. BS 11000 is the world’s first national standard for collaborative business relationships, providing a framework to help companies develop and manage their interactions with other organisations for maximum benefit to both parties.
When First Rail initially achieved the accreditation it was only the 25th company, and the only public transport operator to do so. First Rail’s re-certification recognises the ongoing examples of best practice that can be found in the company’s collaborative business practices.
Glen Lovett, Head of Procurement Capability for First Rail, said:
“We aim to be a demanding customer but also a good customer – approachable and promoting both competition and collaboration within our supplier base. The benefit of this is simple - a more effective and better value for money supply chain, and better services for our customers. That we’ve retained our BS 11000 status shows our Supplier Relationship Management Programme is working to continually enhance our relationship with our key suppliers.”
As well as continually looking for ways to get better deals, the Group is focused on improving the quality of goods and services supplied and on raising the performance bar on suppliers to strive to do continuously better. A dedicated Supplier Relationship Management Programme helps suppliers understand the FirstGroup business better and to make sure that they are shaping their products and services to meet the Group’s future needs.
Clive Burrows, Group Engineering Director for FirstGroup, said:
"BS 11000 has proved hugely valuable for FirstGroup, creating a structure to support, monitor and manage the development of our relationships with our key suppliers and partners. This has enabled them to understand and to help grow our business, whilst also enabling us to help strengthen their capability and their ability to win more business. The certification is excellent recognition of all the hard work by suppliers, partners and our own team that has gone in to improving these relationships."
Maureen Sumner-Smith, Managing Director of BSI UK and Ireland, said:
“Accreditation to BS 11000 underlines FirstGroup’s commitment to forging successful collaborative relationships, with their clients and suppliers, which will form a solid platform for further growth and development of their business practices. BS 11000 is becoming widely recognised as the standard by which organisations can build mutually beneficial partnerships that deliver results and value added. This approach by FirstGroup will help to maintain their position at the forefront of the Rail Industry.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America and our services help to create strong, vibrant and sustainable local economies. During the last year around 2.4 billion people relied on us to get to work, to education, to visit family and friends and much more and, each day, every one of our 110,000 employees works hard to deliver vitally important services for our passengers.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
First Rail
FirstGroup is one of the most experienced rail operators in the UK and the only one to run every sort of railway - long distance, regional, commuter and sleeper operations. We carried more than 280 million passengers in 2014/15.
- We operate two passenger franchises – Great Western Railway (GWR) and First TransPennine Express – and one open access operator, First Hull Trains.
- We operate the Tramlink network on behalf of Transport for London carrying more than 32 million passengers a year and the Heathrow Connect service in partnership with Heathrow Airport.
For more information about FirstGroup and our divisions please visit www.firstgroupplc.com