Hormel Foods Corporation recently handed out their 2012 Spirit of Excellence Awards. The awards went out to the company's top 59 suppliers.
The awards are decided on a basis of how the suppliers helped Hormel continue their improvement and progress in the food industry throughout the year.
As stated by HormelFoods.com, they hand out awards to suppliers in "a variety of areas including contractors, pork procurement, provisions, ingredients, packaging and transportation."
"The Hormel Foods Spirit of Excellence Award program recognizes the suppliers that truly go above and beyond, making an impact on our business," said Melanie A. Faust, Director of Purchasing at Hormel Foods. "We're honored to partner with these distinguished suppliers."
In order to qualify for a Spirit of Excellence Award, suppliers must maintain a minimum supplier rating index score of 92 throughout the year. The index was put into practice in 1990 and rates companies based on their performance in reducing costs, mitigating risk, quality of service and their ability to continually innovate. The ability to deliver on time and maintain customer support are also key factors.
These awards shouldn't be confused with Hormel's No. 1 Award recipients, which they give out every five years. However, in order to be nominated for a No. 1 Award, a company must have received a Spirit of Excellence Award sometime in those five years. The No. 1 Awards were last handed out in 2010. Some of those winners were A.J. Lysne Contracting Corporation, Commercial Service and Decker Truck Line, Inc.
Some of this year's Spirit of Excellence Award recipients in engineering are A.J. Lysney, East Penn Manufacturing, Environmental Land Management, LLC, Fox Electric and Gleeson Constructors & Engineers, LLC.
Recipients in procurement are New Fashion Pork LLP, Honeysucke Farms LLC and Tip Top Pork. In purchasing, Hormel handed out awards to Aramark Uniform Services, CHR Hansen Inc., and Red Arrow Products Company LLC to name a few.
Click here for the full list of recipients.