AOCS Corporate Member Spotlight: Center for Testmaterials B.V.

Sterling Bollman, the head of Advertising and Sponsorship Sales at AOCS, talked with Caspar van Leeuwen, the Managing Director of Center for Testmaterials B.V., a global company based in the Netherlands. In this conversation, AOCS learned about innovations Center for Testmaterials B.V. has developed and what really sets them apart from their competitors. Read on for the next installment in the Corporate Member Spotlight series and learn more about the Center for Testmaterials B.V.

Thanks for joining me Caspar. We’re thrilled to continue our “Corporate Member Spotlight” series with the Center for Testmaterials. My first question is a basic, background one. What types of products and services does your company provide?

Center for Testmaterials is the one-stop-shop for cleaning-performance testing. We offer a wide variety of stains, other testmaterials, cutting and sewing services, (soiled) ballast loads, reference detergents, measuring equipment and laboratory washing machines. 

With such a wide variety of options you offer, there’s sure to be many competitors you must deal with. What differentiates the Center for Testmaterials from these other companies? 

In order to set us apart from those in the same field, we work on four different areas. Those areas are as follows:

• Quality
• Quality is our main concern. Our products always must be from the highest quality. Our quality control is strict, and we put a lot of work in controlling the consistency of our ingredients. This is important to maintain our reproducibility. 
• Delivery speed
• The last couple of years, Center for Testmaterials has focused on supplying our products to our customers even faster. 
• Communication
• Center for Testmaterials has also focused on their communication. Through email and our website, we provide our customers and clients with important information about our products and services. Thanks to our office team, we make sure you receive a reply within one business day. 
• Full service
• Finally, full service has become important for Center for Testmaterials. We offer a wide range of products. There is a possibility of purchasing from compelling brands. Our customer is the king. If something is missing in our product range, we work together with our customers to develop new products. 

Thanks for that breakdown! With all the focus on quality and customer service, there must be plenty of opportunities for new innovation. What’s an innovation you are proud to offer at Center for Testmaterials? 

We have recently finished developing the CFT Greying sock, which is a soil-ballast load that can be used to mimic the realistic greying of white fabric. The greying sock can copy up to twenty-five wash cycles in just five actual wash cycles. Most of our R&D budget is on expanding our CFT Dishwash method with ready-to-use soiled tiles (soiled melamine, technical porcelain, stainless steel, plastic, glass and ceramic). We are always working on the development of harder, surface cleaning testmaterials as well. 

An emphasis on innovation is incredibly important, especially during these tough times. In what ways has the COVID19 situation affected Center for Testmaterials and what do you foresee being your biggest challenges in the upcoming year?

Luckily, our company has not been largely affected by COVID19, especially on the orders placed by our customers from March until now. We did see that some companies we work with were ordering quite a bit more of stock material, which we assume was caused by fear of not being able to order more supplies if air transport was prohibited. We are incredibly glad that we did not have to fully close our company; instead, have been able to continue our production and helping our customers. In order to prevent against outbreaks, we have imposed protective measures, such as social distancing and the separation of our departments. While this has put a bit of strain on our operation, we have managed to continue getting our products out on time.

Always, our biggest challenge is to maintain our consistency in the materials and quality of our products. We need to make sure that we can always obtain our raw materials and they must always be reproducible, relevant and realistic. Due to the growth of Center of Testmaterial Fabrics over the past five years, we also want to stay focused on the well-being and personal growth of our employees. In the meantime, we must stay our innovative selves.

Well, it is refreshing to hear that there are still companies out there that can continue powering through the unknown that the COVID19 pandemic presents. Before I let you go, I do have one more important question for you. Why is it important to you and Center for Testmaterials to be a member of AOCS?

The membership is important to us because of the exposure AOCS offers on their numerous events. This increases our brand awareness, raises our brand recognition and amplifies the reach of our network to places we would not normally have access to. We also enjoy the benefits of the discounts for attending and taking part in the larger conferences, such as the annual meeting.

Thanks again for reading and thanks to Caspar van Leeuwen and his colleagues at The Center for Testmaterials for taking part in our AOCS Corporate Member Spotlight Series. Make sure to visit their website and learn more information! Join us next time to see who we feature next!