The Procter & Gamble Company recognized its top performing external business partners during an awards ceremony last night at its Business Partner Recognition Dinner. The objective of the annual event is to recognize and celebrate those key contributors who have demonstrated partner excellence. This year about 80 supplier and agency partners were represented at the awards dinner.

“We have tremendous partnerships with our external business partners around the world,” said Bob McDonald, P&G’s chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer. “These partnerships are powerful because they are focused on a common purpose - to touch and improve people's everyday lives.”

Among P&G’s more than 75,000 suppliers and agencies, 12 received the highest honor of being named “Business Partner of the Year” including:

Albany International Corp.
Éltex Ltd.
Ernst & Young
Farm Frites International B.V.
FIRMENICH
Infosys Limited
Novozymes
PEGAS NONWOVENS
QPSI / RockTenn
Southern Graphic Systems, Intl.
Yamada Electric
ZAHORANSKY AG
“I congratulate all of our award winners, especially those who were recognized as ‘Business Partner of the Year,’” said Rick Hughes, chief purchasing officer. “Our external business partners are an important part of the Company’s ability to innovate and grow, and critical to the work we do at P&G every day. Every consumer who uses a P&G brand benefits from these relationships, which enhance our ability to fulfill our Purpose of touching and improving consumers’ lives.”

In addition to the select few “Business Partner of the Year” awards, all companies performing consistently at high levels within P&G’s internal performance management system earned Excellence Awards. The 86 external business partners receiving this distinction, awarded to only about 0.1% of P&G’s global suppliers, were:

Acosta Sales & Marketing
Albany International Corp.
ARKAY PACKAGING
Axiom Consulting
BASF SE
BCP
BERCO TRADING CO. INC.
Bison Transport Inc
Boots Contract Manufacturing Ltd
BRANDWORKS MARKETING CONSULTING
Breakthrough®Fuel
Calvary Industries, Inc.
Carat USA
CH2M HILL
Chase Design Group
COSMINT
Design Productions, Inc.
DeVries Public Relations
Diamond Packaging
Ekol Lojistik A.?.
Éltex Ltd.
Encapsys®
Ernst & Young
Evonik Industries
Farm Frites International B.V.
FDK Corporation
FIBERTEX PERSONAL CARE
FIRMENICH
Folmex SA de CV
GOINDUSTRY DOVEBID
Havpak, Inc.
HAYCO LTD.
Hitachi Metals, Ltd.
Infosys Limited
Knowlton Development Corporation (KDC)
Ketchum
MANPOWER FOR ADVERTISING SERVICES AGENCY INC. (MASA)
Marietta Corporation
Marina Maher Communications, Inc.
Mechtronics
MediaCom AAIJK
MonoSol, LLC
Nelson Packaging Company, Inc
NiCE Ltd.
NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD.
NORDENIA INTERNATIONAL AG
Novozymes
Pasternak, Baum & Co.,Inc.
PAX AUSTRALIA / ONE ASIA
PEGAS NONWOVENS
Pep
pilot 1/0
Plastipak Packaging, Inc.
Premiere Packaging
Publicis Worldwide
QPSI / RockTenn
Quigley-Simpson
Renessenz LLC
RENGO CO., LTD.
Rialto Enterprises, Chennai - India
Rising Products (ZhongShan) Co., Ltd.
Ronchi Mario Spa
Saatchi & Saatchi
Sasol Olefins & Surfactants
Segerdahl Group
Shandong Tianli Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Shanghai Morimatsu Pharmaceutical Equipment Engineering Co., Ltd.
SMG Latin America Communications Planning and Buying AOR teams
SMG North America Communications Planning and Sight, Sound and Motion AOR teams
Southern Graphic Systems, Intl.
SUPERPAC, INC.
Swanson Plastics Corporation
Takasago International Corporation
TECHNIMARK LLC
Transportadora Jolivan
Transportes Locales Especializados, S.A. de C.V. (SILSA)
TransX
TSS Technologies
Tufco Technologies, Inc.
Umiplast, S.A.
World Pac Paper, LLC
Xerox Corporation
Yamada Electric
ZAHORANSKY AG
Ziba Design
ZRP Printing Group Ltd.
The number of Excellence award winners this year represents a 13% increase over the total a year ago. We work with all of our partners to reach excellence levels, and therefore there is no limit on the number of excellence awards that can be achieved. “This is about collaboration and Partnering with Purpose,” said Hughes, echoing a theme of this year’s event.

“I want to commend the award winners, and all of our external business partners, for the strategic role they play to help us win in the market place and serve our consumers better than anyone else,” said McDonald.