During the ceremony, held last week, P&G also acknowledged 51 other of the estimated 75,000 suppliers it works with, including the two awards for superior performance in supplier diversity.
The seven companies that were given highest honor Excellence Award for External Business Partners of the Year were:
- EY
- Pegasus Nonwoven
- MonoSol, Kuraray WS Film Division
- Rising Display Products (Zhongshan)
- Ronchi Mario
- Superpac
- Yamada Electric
Of the seven companies listed above, the last five businesses were also awarded the External Business Partner of the Year award in 2013.
During the awards presentation, P&G CEO A.G. Lafley stressed how the awards had emphasized innovation, productivity and partnership this year, stressing how this ultimately served to create value in the very business transactions, as well as consumers and industry as a whole.
Of the 51 companies that were also acknowledged as external business partners, the P&G awards panel also acknowledged Chep and Fluor industrial services, for their additional commitment to supplier diversity.
Increased investment in diversity businesses
The P&G panel chose to distinguish these two companies for increasing their spend on women- and minority-owned suppliers, as well as demonstrating a strong focus on this business strategy.
This is the first time that P&G has recognized suppliers for their support of diversity businesses, although the company has itself grown its annual investment in such business to $2 billion.
“I congratulate all of our award winners, especially those who were recognized as ‘External Business Partner of the Year’ and those we recognized for Supplier Diversity,” said Stew Atkinson, Chief Purchasing Officer.
"As we move the business forward in a structured, strategic way, our external business partners will continue to play a crucial role in helping us serve the world’s consumers."