Red Sea Paints Co. Ltd, one of the pioneers in paint technology in Saudi Arabia, has been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification, the company announced.

"The process of achieving this mammoth task was done entirely within a span of four months. The project was led by the company's business systems manager, Ravi Vattakassery, and quality assurance coordinator Chetan Shah," the company said.

The company is a joint venture of paint giant Jotun A/S of Norway and Marine Bin Mahfouz & Al Amoudi Co. It started its production facility in the Jeddah Industrial City, Phase-3, way back in 1975. The head office is located in Jeddah with two registered branches in Riyadh and Dammam where sales offices and warehouse facilities exist.

Red Sea Paints was awarded the prestigious ISO 9001 certificate from DNV in December 1997, in recognition of the company's total commitment to the quality of its products and customer services. In addition Red Sea's product range has the SASO Mark.

The licensed production capacity is 19,000 tonnes with a registered share capital of SR9.5million.

"The futuristic vision of the company is sure to benefit its range of customers, especially the industrial segment, which relies heavily on the technical backup or assistance of the company," Red Sea said.