How Quality Certification Helped Fella Hamilton Break into a New Sector

In August 2021, part of leading Australian fashion label Fella Hamilton, Fella Healthwear, achieved certification in ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems (QMS) with flying colours.

ISO 9001 is one of the most widely-used quality management standards around the world. It is designed to help organisations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements related to their product.

Fella Hamilton’s approach

Fella Hamilton is an Australian owned and operated women’s fashion label. Established in 1969, the brand has “a long history of dressing women in inspired designs for every occasion”. Majority of their range is Australia Made and ECA Accredited – the company designs and manufactures in its Melbourne warehouse and engages local ethical suppliers and contractors. The Fella Hamilton Group includes the Hedrena Brand and Fella Healthwear, with Fella Healthwear being recently certified in ISO 9001. 

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, “the retail environment was thrown into turmoil”. Confronted with ever-changing government guidelines, increased freight and fabric expenses, production and delivery delays, and skills shortages in local manufacturing, Fella Hamilton knew that change was not an option but a necessity. Only by becoming “flexible and adaptable” could the company keep its head above turbulent waters.  

“Don’t sit still and don’t be too rigid in your ways! This is what we’ve learned in the last few years. To continue operating we must adapt to the current climate, manage expenses and keep moving forward.

With this quick-thinking mindset, Fella Hamilton “pivoted” and introduced Fella Healthwear.

“During the difficult COVID-19 worldwide pandemic we saw the pressures placed on the allied health sector and the shortages of PPE available to the workers and organisations...We pooled our resources to design and develop a range of masks, scrubs, gowns and PPE clothing under the trademark of Fella Healthwear. This enabled the company to remain sustainable and kept staff employed throughout a difficult period in our history.”

Fella Healthwear sought “credibility in a new arena” and recognised the importance of ISO 9001 certification in achieving legitimacy. The brand looked to Certex to help uphold their “reputation for a quality product and service...with a different customer [base]”. The company also saw Quality certification as “an opportunity to improve disciplines across the board, not just in our Healthwear brand but also Fella Hamilton.” 

Certification with Certex was a seamless and valuable process – “a positive experience”. Preparing for ISO 9001 involved effective and sustainable organisational and system improvement, rather than adding new processes on top of existing ones for the mere sake of complying with the standard. 

“Our facilitator, Ross was approachable, available for questions, good at explaining using examples and gave us encouragement. The hub was also a great communication tool and quite easy to use.”

When asked whether Fella Hamilton has observed any benefits since being certified with Certex, they replied, “Definitely!” Through "increased understanding...of the importance of each step in the process” and minimising wastage and errors across all areas of operations, Fella Hamilton’s efficiency and effectiveness and has improved immensely.  

“We have improved disciplines and produce a better-quality product. We have reduced errors and backlogs created by errors or issues in the production process we may not have identified early enough previously. This creates less wastage (of time and product), enables us to deliver quality and on time.” 

Impressed with the profound benefits of ISO 9001 QMS certification, Fella Hamilton is now “looking at ways [they] can introduce learnings from the ISO process into other parts of the business”. 

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Certex is accredited with the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) ISO 9001 as well as Safety and Environmental standards. 

To learn more about Quality certification for your business, please do not hesitate to give us a call or email.

Note: Fella Healthware are no longer certified in ISO 9001.