About Us

Our History


  1. 2005

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    Stephen Whyte decides it's time to transform how food and drink businesses manage risk in their supply chains.

  2. 2006

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    Beta version of QADEX supplier self-audit questionnaires module released. But it doesn’t deliver, so it’s back to the drawing board to build a new version.

  3. 2007

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    Version 2 arrives, it’s beautiful! The journey begins. 100 sites using QADEX.

  4. 2010

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    Large expansion of in-house development team.
    Team grows to 30.
    5,000 users

  5. 2014

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    Supplier and product risk assessments released.

  6. 2016

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    Advanced supplier and product risk assessments launched.

  7. 2017

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    Risk assessments extended to include sustainability and ethical risk assessments; customers start using QADEX for 360° or multi-dimensional risk assessments.

  8. 2018

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    Supply chain mapping launched.

  9. 2019

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    Rick Sanderson meets Stephen and pitches the idea for STARIndexTM
    Aaron Loveday joins the team to bring best-of-breed social compliance auditing capabilities. Team reaches 70 across three offices 25,000 users.

  10. 2020

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    The levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) faced by businesses reaches an all-time high.

    Businesses are asking themselves
    - Are there Sustainability risks within our supply chains that could impact our ability to continue to trade successfully?

    - Are our supply chain Technical approval and risk management processes optimised?

    - Does our supply chain utilise natural Assets/resources that are finite, since we couldn’t trade successfully without easy and cost-effective availability of them?

    - Would a failure in our Responsible sourcing policies – such as a modern slavery scandal – damage the value of our brands?

    - Do the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) impact our business?

    - Do we believe that in today’s business environment, being a better business is better for business?

    STAR IndexTM enables businesses to deliver demonstrable progress over time in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.