After a year of unprecedented challenges for its supply chain in 2020, Lion hosted its annual supplier awards on Thursday, bringing together its suppliers from across Australia and New Zealand for a virtual event to recognise their efforts in packaging, ingredients, services and logistics.
Lion CEO Stuart Irvine was joined by Group Supply Chain Director, Ian Roberts and Supply Chain Solutions Director, Irene Bell to acknowledge the outstanding list of nominees and announce the winners in a virtual awards ceremony that celebrated sociability and achievement, attended by more than 50 representatives from Lion’s supply partners.
“After everything we navigated in partnership with our amazing suppliers across Australia and New Zealand in 2020, this year’s awards carry extra special meaning,” Mr Irvine said.
“For Lion, living our core purpose would simply not be possible without the strength of the relationships we have with our supply partners. Throughout the pandemic – and all the other challenges of the last 12 months – they have backed us every step of the way in being sociable and living well.”
There was a special category this year – ‘Think Beyond, Innovate and Adapt’ – and the ultimate award of ‘Supplier of the Year’ which went to Labelmakers who provide Lion with paper and pressure sensitive labels and have been partners with the business for more than 15 years.
Lion said: “Labelmakers have maintained an outstanding level of performance to support Lion.
Labelmakers are genuine, transparent, and work hard on building relationships, across the organisation. Their dedication to support our business is second to none.”
The ‘Think Beyond, Innovate and Adapt’ award went to relatively new New Zealand supplier, Sorted Logistics. Of the partnership, Lion said: “As well as strong business-as-usual performance, in the face of the international shipping crisis brought about by COVID-19, Sorted Logistics were responsible for Lion succeeding in its 2020/21 peak period.
“Where capacity was extremely tight, Sorted worked tirelessly with transport companies and shipping lines to come up with innovative ways of moving product around New Zealand through a combination of rail, co-loading, trucks and shipping lines which was instrumental in the delivery of peak in 2020. “
Lion said that all award winners (see list below) demonstrated the highest standards in delivery performance, quality and service, as measured by a survey of Lion personnel who work with its suppliers on a daily basis.
Lion Group Supply Chain Director, Ian Roberts said 2020 was a particularly challenging year for the industry, and the awards were all about recognising Lion’s suppliers that went above and beyond to support the company as it navigated a whole raft of challenges – from the pandemic and closure of hospitality venues, to a cyber-attack and rollout of its new SAP platform.
“There is no denying Lion had a tough 2020, but we know it was equally tough on many of our suppliers. These awards are all about celebrating the extraordinary contribution of our suppliers and thanking them for their ongoing efforts to ensure Lion is best placed to win in the marketplace,” Mr Roberts said.
Full list of nominees and award winners:
Award: Packaging
Winner: Visy Glass
Award: Ingredients
Winner: Hop Products Australia
Award: Site Services/Engineering
Winner: Foodmach
Award: Logistics
Winner: Henning Harders
Award: Think Beyond, Adapt and Innovate
Winner: Sorted Logistics
Award: Supplier of the Year
Winner: Labelmakers