Now in its ninth year, Rexam Beverage Can Europe & Asia Supplier Awards, held in early March at Sopwell House in St Albans, saw over 36 suppliers from across the region come together to celebrate the achievements of those in their industry. Rexam, one of the leading global beverage can makers, works tirelessly to ensure both reliability, quality and cost effectiveness through our whole supply chain and the event provides an invaluable opportunity to reward our suppliers’ hard work and dedication to accomplishing supplier excellence.

Alongside the more traditional awards in the areas of Supply, Quality and Cost, Rexam also awarded both ‘The Rexam Way Award’ and the prestigious ‘Supplier of the Year’ award.  The Rexam Way Award is only given if Rexam feels a supplier should be recognised for proactively working with Rexam to ensure an excellent performance as well as demonstrating the 4 pillars of the Rexam Way – Trust, Teamwork, Continuous Improvement and Recognition.

Richard Downes, VP of Supply Chain and IM, Rexam Beverage Can Europe & Asia, who spoke on the night, commented; “It was great to see so many of our suppliers at the awards.  Each supplier works hard to achieve operational excellence in their area of the supply chain and it is extremely important to Rexam to publicly extend our thanks and appreciation for their efforts throughout the year.” 

The judging process incorporates a number of factors to select the winners including; feedback from Rexam plant teams, analysis of management approach and a full review of supplier’s performance throughout the year. 

The awards, presented by Rexam CEO Graham Chipchase, went to:

• Supply award to AkzoNobel. They carried out an excellent job in the preparation and execution of the conversions and met the deadline of May 2011 without endangering security of supply to Rexam.  Spent many hours on Rexam sites to ensure the conversions were a success as well as carrying out back-up visits to check the new product had become embedded and to further optimise settings and usages.
• Quality award to La Artistica. They achieved 6 years continual service without a quality issue to Rexam plants.  Despite very volatile raw materials in the last year, this supplier managed to consistently provide Rexam with a top quality product.
• Cost award to Brammer. Since 2009 this supplier has helped Rexam drive operational excellence at the plants through increased spend visibility and control. They have worked on numerous projects at both Can and End plants during 2011 delivering savings to Rexam and implementing a solution in Spain resulting in a significant increase in can production. The partnership with this supplier has been invaluable to Rexam’s long term MRO strategy not only in 2011 but over the last three year period.
• The Rexam way award to Novelis. They have worked with Rexam for 10 years, being strategic and flexible in their approach to producing a long term contract, and embracing the concept of a win-win solution. Rexam have a Joint partnership on projects covering technical, quality and supply improvements demonstrating and leading team work.  They deliver continuous improvement in an innovative and open way and make themselves the supplier of choice by embracing the Rexam way.
• Supplier of the Year award to Henkel. They ahve shown great advances in their business relationship with Rexam through a new and successful approach to their relationship and have been a very high quality supplier with a broad product portfolio for Beverage Cans.  Their project work has achieved significant savings for the Rexam plants and this work will continue into 2012. The supplier increased their innovative efforts for Beverage Cans and has launched several improvements for Front Rexam plants and this work will continue into 2012. The supplier increased their innovative efforts for Beverage Cans and has launched several improvements for Front End solutions.

Aziz Mabrouki and Mark Sowerby from Henkel, accepted their award on the night, commenting; “We are delighted to have won Rexam’s Supplier of the Year, we have worked hard throughout the year to improve our performance, both in terms of our relationship with Rexam and our service delivery.  It is a great honour to be recognised by Rexam and to know our work has made a positive impact on their business.”

Winners of the Quality award, Teresa Ramos from La Artistica, also enjoyed the night; “To win the quality award is fantastic, especially after a long and prosperous relationship with Rexam.  It was great to meet fellow suppliers on the night and to be presented the award by Graham Chipchase.  We look forward to a continued relationship with Rexam in the years to come.”