Jebel Ali-based manufacturer of industrial and military footwear Dubai Footwear Company (DFC) has announced it has won sole distribution rights for the products of Blundstone Pty Ltd, the largest manufacturer of heavy-duty work and protective safety footwear in the Australia-Asia region.

Blundstone, based in Tasmania, Australia, has been successfully targeting markets in its home country as well as New Zealand, the South Pacific, Asia, Europe, North America and Scandinavia and now views the Middle East as a promising opportunity.

"The last decade has seen the emergence of the Middle East as a fast-growing market for industrial and safety footwear particularly because of the rapid expansion and construction programmes that have been initiated in most of the GCC countries and we feel that this is an ideal time to establish a presence here," said Blundstone Pty group marketing manager Barry Smith.

"Our tie-up with Dubai Footwear Company is the result of a careful study of the footwear manufacturers and distributors in the region and we feel that DFC fully satisfies our requirements as an organisation that emphasises quality products and services and provides customer satisfaction," Smith added.

DFC recently was awarded the certificate of approval to the new ISO 9001:2000 International Quality Management System, making it the first footwear manufacturer in the UAE and one of the first in the Gulf to achieve this upgraded ISO certification.

"We have always been committed to being a customer-centric business with particular emphasis on the quality of our procedures, products and services," said DFC managing director Sajith Unni.

"The award of the ISO 9001:2000 certification is only a reiteration of our commitment to our customers and evidence of the stringent quality measures that we employ at every level of our manufacturing, sales and marketing processes. Our strategic partnership with Blundstone will enhance our ability to serve a wider spectrum of customer needs," he added.

DFC said it had been working towards the ISO certification over the last year reviewing, improving and updating procedures and services in line with the requirements of the stated objectives of the quality policy. The ultimate goal of sustained customer confidence and satisfaction was embedded throughout the entire ISO 9001:2000 framework, it said.

"The significant improvement to the previous ISO framework is the focus on being customer-centric, measuring and improving customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. The new standard has forced us to reassess our quality objectives against customer satisfaction, human resource competencies and critical processes and improve on them continuously," said senior DFC manager Vinod Chandran.