North West take-up assures QM’s future

Quality Mark's (QM) future is secure for the next seven years after a successful launch in the North West generated a 72% take- up (391 firms) to the scheme.

Last month, the Department of Trade & Industry's investment committee admitted it would wait until the results of the North West launch before deciding whether to provide the scheme with £28m in funding (CJ 5 November).

Sources have now told CJ that the committee had been "very pleased" with results from the roll-out and is willing to release funds, thought to be around £500,000, for a similar sized launch in the North East.

Sources have also confirmed that this will be followed by a national roll-out next year as part of QM's seven-year business plan to try and attract 45,000 members.

However, the three-week recruitment drive across the North West wasn't without drama after confusion at the scheme's call centre resulted in a lower attendance than expected.

Around 700 people, representing 540 firms, attended the launches with the 72% figure expected to increase further as more companies fill in their expression of interest forms.

One insider said: "Phone operators were loosely asking people if they would go to the launches. They didn't manage to generate a definite 'yes'. This resulted in 50 fewer people turning up to each event than were expected by organisers."

Alan Wheeler, QM's national media relations co-ordinator, said that a ring-around was carried out on the morning before the events to give a rough estimate of the likely attendance numbers, although drop-out rates were factored in to expected attendance figures.

Not all companies, however, are impressed with QM. David Carter, managing director of building contractor Carebuild, claimed the scheme "still wasn't working" and was "failing to spread the message".

Carebuild shunned the scheme when it was approached over the issue of insurance cover for QM.

"It is impossible for many contractors to pay for the scheme's warranty insurance, which is charged at 0.7% of company turnover to protect customers from bad work or liquidation," he said. "I am sick to the back teeth of QM. It is just a lot of extra costs and bureaucracy that we don't need. Insurance for the scheme would work out at around £1,100 for us on top of our £2,000 fee for other insurance premiums such as employers' liability cover."

But Wheeler added that the scheme's insurance premium was a "small percentage of a firm's domestic turnover" and was "cheap by industry standards". He also revealed that the scheme's warranty premium rate had already halved from its original level.