INTERTEK Group said yesterday that it plans to expand in China by setting up a new center in Shanghai and opening more offices in the country, where product quality and safety has taken on even more significance following the contaminated milk powder crisis.

Intertek, the London-listed quality and safety service provider, established a supply security verification center in Shanghai in cooperation with China Certification and Inspection Group Co. The center, called CCIC-GSV, is the first third-party supply security verification service organization in China.

The center will provide a localized supply chain security verification service to companies both home and abroad to ensure that made-in-China products enter the international market smoothly and enhance their reputation and image, Intertek said.

"More legislation and more requirements (globally) make it more and more complicated for manufacturers and exporters to comply with them all," said Wolfhart Hauser, Intertek's chief executive officer. "That's where we can help."

The company is recruiting people in China, not only in the coastal areas, but also in inland China as some of the industries are moving there. It has already more than 6,000 people in China, a quarter of its global payroll.

Hauser declined to reveal the revenue and growth in China's market but he mentioned Asia as "the region with the highest profit."

The demand for product quality and safety is gaining importance globally. In China, the awareness of food safety has improved significantly, industry insiders said.