Refac is a new company which aims to provide a comprehensive and cost-efficient Reach compliance service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout Europe
Refac - the new Reach facilitation company for Europe's chemical supply chain - opened for business on 25 April 2007 with the launch of its website.
Melvyn Whyte, Refac's chairman, said: "Refac is managed by the industry for the industry and has two simple objectives: to provide its members with cost-effective compliance solutions and, wherever possible, reduce the burden of administration imposed by Reach".
Refac's services will benefit SMEs - based inside or outside the European Union - and are open to chemical producers, distributors, service providers, downstream users or trade associations.
Refac will deliver Reach compliance using its own staff and industry expertise.
It will not be a clearing house for consultancy services.
"Refac aims to relieve companies of the burden of Reach compliance and help them to develop mutually beneficial partnerships.
"For example, Refac will assist its members to organise their portfolio of products and structure their sales in such a way which minimises the cost impact of Reach," said Melvyn Whyte.
"Two other ways in which Refac will help its members to achieve cost-effective compliance will be to assist in the sourcing of data from the most competitive and reliable sources and negotiating appropriate testing regimes, ReFaC will also search for economies of scale by bringing together businesses registering the same substance to promote the pooling of data and other forms of co-operation," he added.
Refac is building a product database which will allow its member companies to identify other businesses with an interest in similar products.
This unique on-line database will be able to be searched by any visitor to the Refac website (though they will be unable to identify the companies listing the substances).
Companies wishing to list their own products on the database will be asked to register with Refac before they can access this facility.
There is no charge for this registration or any further obligation to use Refac's services.
"This database will have a key role following pre-registration and in the subsequent formation of consortia," said Melvyn Whyte.
"It will help in achieving cost effective Reach compliance and Refac is able to offer this service to its members along with an assurance of complete security for their confidential business information," he said.
