Consumer Testing Laboratories (CTL) History

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The Company Description of Its Time

Consumer Testing Laboratories - CTL - is filed in the Apparel Search directory as a testing company, and its profile carries news the other C filings do not: UL, described as a global safety science leader, announced on October 6, 2016 the acquisition of Consumer Testing Laboratories Inc. (CTL), a leading multinational retail testing company, to expand UL's global footprint and services. CTL was a privately held company based in Bentonville, Arkansas, recognised as a leader in quality assurance services for the retail industry, and UL would leverage CTL's facilities in five countries to extend its reach to its customer base and offer a larger portfolio of services. That acquisition notice frames the rest of the filing, which is the company's own account of a testing practice built since 1952.

Testing From the Consumer's Viewpoint

The approach is in the company(?:'|')s name: the Consumer Testing Laboratories evaluate products from the viewpoint of the consumer - how they are going to use the product and what they expect from it. This approach, the profile says, distinguishes them from other laboratories. Its practical consequence is a determination service: as a result of CTL's 50-plus years of experience, when you submit a product for testing they will determine exactly what tests are to be conducted, assuring that all important quality criteria are properly and thoroughly evaluated - while you can also specify additional testing procedures for your particular product. Products from different sources can be tested against each other before the critical decision to purchase them has to be made.

The laboratories themselves are described as superbly equipped and expertly staffed, with textile, mechanical and electrical engineers among the best in their fields, and the latest equipment for testing apparel and textiles. The product range tested is deliberately wider than fashion: from wearing apparel to footwear, paint to tools, toys to patio furniture, housewares to automotive products. The reporting style is part of the offer - CTL test reports include much more than test data requiring interpretation; they provide a comprehensive written report giving a straightforward, easy-to-understand factual evaluation of the product, detailing both its positive and negative points. For apparel manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, those reports provide much valuable information.

Programs, Specifications and Audits

Beyond single-product testing, there is a program business: the laboratories can develop turn-key quality programs customised to a client's particular needs, serving on-premise or off site, installed and completely managed by their staff - for a manufacturer or retailer doing business in the United States or overseas. The service list around the testing core is specific and is given whole: in addition to testing consumer products such as clothing and fashion accessories, they develop product specifications, create quality manuals, provide buyer training and education, run in-store audits, conduct analysis of customer returns, and monitor purchase orders. All of it, the profile says, is designed to give the client a competitive edge in the marketplace.

The Apparel Search routes below are unusually relevant for this page, because they lead to the directory's own quality cluster: the quality testing guide, the apparel testing laboratories list, the textile testing methods guide, the inspection services page, the AQL acceptable quality levels guide, and the fabric quality defects terms - the profile itself ends by asking whether you understand AQL and how to find fabric quality defects, and pointing readers to CTL's testing standards and methods for textiles and apparel. Read together, the profile and the quality cluster give a buyer the full picture the directory intends: what a testing laboratory does, how its reports read, and the vocabulary - AQL, defects, specifications - needed to use them.

← Back to the current Consumer Testing Laboratories (CTL) profile