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Reflections from diversifying our services, team, and global reach
Quality doesn’t look the same across every brand and industry. A consumer goods brand prioritizes hands-on inspections to reduce defects, while a food and beverage company wants chemically and nutritionally safe products.
At FQ, we’ve prioritized growing our team and global network to meet new and varied QC challenges across brands of all sizes and industries. Q2 was no exception, and we’re excited to demonstrate the expansion of our expertise with talented new team members and exciting new offerings.
Over the past few months, we’ve added exceptional hires to our team, each with extensive experience in commerce enablement and supply chain technology.
John Reynolds joined as our newest Account Executive, bringing over a decade of freight forwarding and customs brokerage experience at Flexport and Expeditors. As a veteran in the world of logistics, John will be a key player in helping our clients identify and remedy product quality issues that would negatively impact revenue. He’s seen the most prevalent industry pain points as they trickle down the supply chain — now he’s ready to help us stop them.
On the customer success side, Sarah Thompson came aboard as our Customer Success Manager, bringing years of product development experience for fashion brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Throughout her career, she’s gained a deep understanding of production and quality standards, empowering her to provide tactical advice to our customers as they build out their own QC standards. With Sarah’s service and support, our clients are better equipped to maintain product quality and customer satisfaction.
As our team continues to grow, we’ve also expanded our business into adjacent markets, including the food and beverage industry.
In Q2, we onboarded prominent names like Starday Foods and Kettle & Fire to help ensure their products meet the stringent quality standards for consumable goods. Our team has also been innovating new ways to reinforce that quality. We constructed new software to help food and bev brands store documents detailing manufacturing and quality, while launching a new service provider to test formulated products and ingredients.
On top of expanding into consumable goods, we’ve partnered with several up-market brands like Harry’s and Topo Designs. These brands have hundreds of SKUs and sell products manufactured across dozens of countries. As FQ continues to grow, we’re committed to consolidating the expertise and resources needed to help these industry giants simplify their supply chains.
New customers and industries bring new ways to support them. Since expanding FQ’s global services into 28 countries (up from 22 in Q1), we wanted to cover all our new clients’ testing needs, including PFAS testing, heavy metals analysis, and much more.
We’re constantly looking for new testing partners, and thanks to the team’s hard work, we found some exceptional labs that can help bolster the depth of our services.
Beyond new customers and testing partners, we’ve been drafting a comprehensive guide to the upcoming MoCRA regulations for our cosmetics clients. With it, they’ll clearly understand new regulatory changes so they can stay compliant once the law goes into effect later this year.
We’ve also made significant advancements to make the FQ platform more user-friendly for larger customers. Our NetSuite integration enables customers to import purchase order data into the FQ system seamlessly. This connection is essential for eliminating data accuracy issues that plague up-market brands so their teams can stay informed about everything QC-related in real time.
To close the efficiency loop, we’ve added new features, including permissions and workflows that cater to more specific customer needs. Bulk uploading CSVs or spreadsheets simplifies how relevant data comes into the FQ platform. With our AI-powered PDF data extraction for purchase orders, brands can save and reinvest their valuable time into other growth initiatives. For an in-depth look at these new features, take a look at our most recent changelog.
As we move into Q3, we’re continuing to find innovative ways to support new and existing customers. Here’s a sneak peek into what we’re working on:
This all-new feature empowers our customers to create custom QC checklists with just a few clicks. You’ll be able to build and update your checklists based on specific products, parts, and materials. We also have a wide-ranging list of industry-standard checklists to use by default, which can be modified in seconds.
Building on our concepts from Q2, we’re continuing to expand our network of testing partners for food and beverage brands. Adding more trusted labs ensures our customers meet and easily maintain their safety standards and regulatory compliance.
Another feature planned to go live in Q3, Document Manager provides a centralized hub for all your files, including inspection files, tech packs, and reports. This tool allows you to upload, tag, and associate files with bookings, suppliers, products, SKUs, and purchase orders, enhancing tracking and organization. This update streamlines document management, providing greater visibility and control over your files and improving overall workflow efficiency.
With 2024 at the halfway point, our team’s drive to help brands elevate their quality control processes has never been stronger. But great products are never built in a silo, and we’ll continue to factor in constant customer feedback as we expand our platform and services in Q3.
Book a personalized demo today to get started.
