DQS was founded in 1985 in Frankfurt am Main and was the first German certification body. The aim of the founding partners, DGQ and DIN, was mainly to promote the German economy. The foundation overlapped with the publication of the first drafts of the ISO 9000 series of standards, which also include the most important quality standard worldwide today: ISO 9001. In 1986 DQS became the first certification body in Germany to issue a certificate according to ISO 9001. After the merger of DQS with the Management Systems Solutions division of the Americanproduct certification body Underwriters Laboratories Inc. in March 2008, DQS-UL Group is currently one of the world's largest system certification bodies. Since June 2015 the company changed its name to DQS Group.
Corporate Organization
DQS Holding GmbH has more than 80 offices in over 60 countries. DQS Group currently has about 20,000 certified customers across almost all industries with approximately 55,000 certified locations in over 130 countries. The concern employs 588 people and commands 2,479 auditors in 2013. Among the largest companies within the group are DQS Inc., DQS do Brasil Ltd., DQS Japan Inc., DQS Medizinprodukte GmbH and DQS GmbH. DQS GmbH in Germany Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main and with a local offices in Hamburg, DQS GmbH offers the entire service spectrum of the group in Germany. With over 200 employees and about 800 auditors, DQS GmbH is the largest subsidiary of DQS Holding GmbH.
Service spectrum
The international offices of DQS Group focus their portfolio of assessment services on their respective market situation and customer requirements. The group’s service spectrum includes cross-industry assessments to customer or industry-specific requirements and certifications to more than 100 nationally and internationally recognized standards and specifications.
DQS is a charter and full member of the international certification network IQNet Association which was founded in 1990. The main objective of the currently approx. 40-member global network is the mutual recognition of certificates issued by the member companies. Dr Sied Sadek, Managing Director of DQS CFS and DQS Middle East, pointed out in an interview to share DQS's expertise in the field of CSR reporting and DQS's understanding of the necessity to do so sensitive to the regional and cultural context, in the development process of the Islamic Reporting Initiative.
