Hormel Foods Corp. has selected 71 of its suppliers to receive awards for providing quality service and/or products to the multinational marketer of consumer-branded meat and food products. Hormel presented Decker Truck Line Inc. a Spirit of Excellence Award on May 8.
“We hold our suppliers to the highest standards, and these organizations have helped Hormel Foods achieve its process goal to set our industry’s ‘gold standard’ for quality and product safety,” says James P. Snee, director of purchasing for Hormel Foods. “While the individual criteria for each service area differs, all awarded suppliers provide a high level of technical expertise in their industry, along with superior customer service.”
Criteria factored into qualifying for the Spirit of Excellence Award include: ability to meet requirements, ability to make timely deliveries, provide accurate administrative support and maintain inventories. The awarding committee also looks for value-added benefits, including customer support, awareness of environmental concerns and sales representative performance. A universal measurement system has been in place since 1990 to ensure every supplier is held to the same standards.
All winners of the 2007 Spirit of Excellence Awards enter the running for the Hormel No. 1 Award. This award is given out every five years and will be awarded next in 2011 for 2006-2010; criteria for the Hormel No. 1 Award call for the recipient to have received a Spirit of Excellence Award during four out of five years. Decker Truck Line, based in Fort Dodge, Iowa, has received the Spirit of Excellence Award 12 times since 1995 and the Hormel No. 1 Award in 2000 and 2005.
