Stephen Harrison, MD of Harrison Wipes, has stepped down as chairman of the Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) after five years.  RPC bpi group’s Sales Director Lorcan Mekitarian took over as Chairman of the Association at the meeting of its governing Council held on 16th October 2019.

“It has been an honour to serve the CHSA as Chairman,” said Harrison. “I have relished working with the excellent team taking the CHSA forward and am confident Lorcan will steer it through the next phase of its evolution.” 

Mekitarian said: “Stephen has made a significant and incredibly valuable contribution to the CHSA.I speak on behalf of all the Council and the members we represent, when I say thank you. Under Stephen’s leadership we have increased the value provided to members and widened our influence. I am excited about the future, with plans to develop key initiatives including our drive to tackle the challenge of plastics in our sector but know Stephen will be a hard act to follow.”

Known for maintaining standards in the cleaning and hygiene sector, the CHSA is run by its members for its members. During Stephen’s time in office, the Association’s Accreditation Schemes for Manufacturers of Soft Tissue, Plastic Sacks and Industrial Cotton Mops have increased in rigour, grown in membership and members now consistently achieve near perfect compliance in inspections. 

The Association also successfully launched an Accreditation Scheme for Distributors, all distributor members to be accredited from 1st January 2020. Now, more than ever before, the CHSA’s Accreditation Schemes make sure buyers of cleaning and hygiene products can be certain ‘what’s on the box is what’s in the box’.