The unprecedented supply chain challenges of 2020 were the catalyst for Lion to reinstate its annual supplier awards. Award winners included Visy Glass, Foodmach and Labelmakers, which won Australasian Supplier Of The Year.
The virtual event recognised the brewer’s suppliers’ exceptional contributions across packaging, ingredients, services, logistics. More than 50 people from Lion’s supply partners logged on.
Lion CEO Stuart Irvine was joined by group supply chain director Ian Roberts and supply chain solutions director Irene Bell to acknowledge the nominees and announce the winners, celebrating sociability and achievement.
Based on performance in the 2020 calendar year, award winners 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.
Labelmakers managing director Adam Bamford told Food & Drink Business the awards recognise the hard work and commitment that goes into a partnership.
“Winning Lion’s Supplier of the Year award recognises and validates all of the hard work and seamless supply the Labelmakers team brings to the partnership.
“The label is crucial to selling a brand, and as a business we are regularly raising initiatives to help Lion stand out and increase efficiency across their sites. We look forward to continuing the partnership and we thank the entire Lion team for recognising our hard work,” Bamford said.
Roberts said 2020 was difficult for the entire industry, and that the awards were 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,” Roberts said.
Foodmach won the Engineering and Site Services category in what was a poignant recognition for the company.
Foodmach CEO Earle Roberts told Food & Drink Business it was a moment of recognition for Foodmach Director, the late Peter Marks, who led many of Foodmach’s most innovative developments until his passing in February this year. He was given special mention, both for his contribution to the Australian Packaging Industry and for his lead on Foodmach's Robomatrix palletiser technology.
“Lion noted that Robomatrix at its inception was ten years ahead of its time and ahead of its European competitors – and that it took European competitors 10 years to catch up. Many generations of Robomatrix later, it’s still a leading innovation in the world of palletisers. Our team continues to uphold Peter’s legacy of innovative thinking and passion for engineering excellence.”
It was also great recognition of Foodmach’s work with Lion over the past year, Earle Roberts said.
“The award is for a whole-of-team effort, encompassing installations and service work across Australia and New Zealand. The pandemic forced us to rethink almost every aspect of our business and how we provide customer service—and rather rapidly at that—so we’re especially proud to receive it.”
Irvine said after the tumultuous year, the awards had special meaning.
“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,” Irvine said.
According to Luke Sawyer, group engineering and sustainable technologies director, Lion, the Lion Supplier Recognition awards recognises suppliers that have excelled in Safety, Quality, Service, Innovation and Cost across four key categories, and it’s been fantastic to recognise Foodmach as the “Supplier of the Year” in the Engineering and Services category.
“Foodmach has been a long-term partner of Lion over the past 20 years and a major contributor to the successful delivery of a number of major capital works programs," Sawyer explains.
"Foodmach has a strong culture of ‘Safety First’ project delivery and excellent customer service. In particular, they have delivered innovative and cost-effective packaging solutions at our Tooheys, XXXX and Auckland breweries that have improved the safety environment as well as uplifts in packaging flexibility and agility to support Lions Innovation and Customer service requirements.
“Over the years, Foodmach has built strong relationships with our Group Engineering team and the engineering teams at each of our sites and has consistently delivered “right-first-time” project outcomes.”
Winners
Supplier of the Year – Labelmakers
Labelmakers provide Lion with paper and pressure sensitive labels. We have been in partnership for over 15 years. Labelmakers has maintained an outstanding level of performance to support Lion. The team at Labelmakers is genuine, transparent, and work hard on building relationships, across the organisation. Their dedication to support our business is second to none.
Think Beyond, Adapt and Innovate – Sorted Logistics
Sorted Logistics is a relatively new supplier to Lion, providing coastal freight for Lion NZ. Despite the short time they have worked with us, they have proven to be invaluable, particularly over the past 12 months.
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 NZ through a combination of rail, co-loading, trucks and shipping lines which was instrumental in the delivery of peak in 2020. They also saved Lion significant additional costs in port charges over the period.
Although being with Lion for a relatively short period, their performance and proactivity has impressed everyone in Lion NZ. Their ability to come up with ideas and solutions that challenged the status quo in a particularly challenging environment, and then quickly implement them has been second to none.
Packaging – Visy Glass
Visy Glass and Lion have been partners for over 50 years. In 2020, Visy Glass completed the purchase of the Australia and New Zealand O-I glass business in mid-2020, and despite the challenges imposed by COVID-19 maintained flawless supply to our brewery network.
On an environmental note, it is pleasing to see Visy’s commitment to increasing cullet usage and pushing recycled content to record levels in ANZ, which ultimately brings sustainability benefits, in the form of reducing energy costs, reducing the use of virgin material and helps us meet our commitments to 50 per cent recycled content in our packaging material by 2025.
Nominees: Labelmakers, Westrock
Ingredients – Hop Products Australia
Hops Products Australia have been a supplier to Lion for more than 50 years. It provides juicy and flavoursome hops and various hop products to all Lion breweries.
Nominees: Yakima Chief Hops, Barrett Burston Malting
Site Services/Engineering – Foodmach
Foodmach is an Australian packaging system engineer supplier with 20 years of first-class service and quality workmanship to Lion. It has a strong culture of project delivery and excellent customer service. Foodmach drives Lion’s sustainability agenda with a focus on design and supply of energy efficient electrical and automation.
Nominees: Beca, Ecolab
Logistics – Henning Harders
Henning Harders provide international freight services to Lion and done so for more than 25 years. It is an enduring relationship, which in 2020 saw Henning Harders provide outstanding service to Lion in helping to minimise the impacts of the international shipping challenges and product delivery challenges brought on by COVID-19. Henning Harders played a crucial role in ensuring White Claw Hard Seltzer could launch in Australia on the date as planned.
Nominees: Sorted Logistics, Bevchain AU
