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The Swissôtel Düsseldorf, Germany played host to the Supply Chain Distinction Awards on the evening of 9th June as over 350 of the globe's supply chain and logistics community gathered to hear which companies are excelling in a variety of specialist categories connected to this essential enterprise tool.

The last few months have proved highly competitive, with the judging panel including Debra Hofman, Vice President, Supply Chain Top 25 at AMR Research, Patrick Scholler, Procurement Director, Hewlett Packard and Maurice Lee, Value Chain and Logistics Director, Procter & Gamble - assessing over 80 entries from a variety of sectors seeking to showcase their credentials. Indeed, Mr Lee commented:

"This year's submissions have once again been to a very high standard, coming from a great range of organisations operating in very varied and often specialist areas across the globe. These include charities, consultancies, logistics providers as well as multinational producers. This is a great recognition for WTG as this indicates that supply chain organisations, from many different backgrounds, are aware and engaged in the discipline and see the Supply Chain Distinction Awards as a great place to celebrate excellence".

After a sumptuous three course meal, British radio and television personality Peter Hobday began the evening's proceedings by thanking the awards sponsors: Renault Nissan Consulting, Accenture, Boxwood, Gulf Air, Savi Technology, Crimson & Co and the WTG Manufacturing and Supply Chain Alumni. Praise was also given to the ceremony supporters Manufacturing & Logistics IT, The International Supply Chain Education Alliance, Supply Chain Europe Magazine and ELUPEG for their work in raising the profile of the awards this year.

The following companies were rewarded for their achievements in the following categories:

• Operational Excellence (Sponsored by Renault Nissan Consulting) won by Procter & Gamble
• Sourcing Excellence (Sponsored by Accenture) won by Bunge
• Best Collaborative Practice (Sponsored by Boxwood) won by Electrolux
• Supply Chain Innovation (Sponsored by Gulf Air) won by Procter & Gamble
• Best Value Chain / Supply Chain Solutions Provider (Sponsored by the WTG Manufacturing and Supply Chain Alumni) won by Aidmatrix
• Supply Chain Skills won by Herbalife
• Green Supply Chain (Sponsored by Savi Technology) won by Ford
• Supply Chain of the Year (Sponsored by Crimson & Co) won by Herbalife

The results certainly brought surprise and joy as Nils Mueller, Supply Network Solutions Planning Section head from Proctor & Gamble commenting that he was "really proud" to receive the Operational Excellence Award on behalf of his team. "Needless to say we are extremely honoured as well because it's a very prestigious award and we are very happy that the jury picked us for this"

Bert Bong, Manager for Vehicle Planning & Logistics Europe at Ford was presented with the Green Supply Chain Award and commented "We have had an initiative for quite a few years to look after sustainability in the supply chain. After, we looked into the product for environmental reasons; fuel efficiency and reducing CO2 in our factories then we decided to look outside our factories and more at our products central to our logistics and feel we have improved a lot. I feel great because it is a recognition of our effort and I want to thank everybody who was judging on this".

Corporate Communications Supervisor Caroline Marcovitch collected the Sourcing Excellence Award on behalf of Bunge, commenting that they had "really appreciated … that their efforts and values were recognised".

Cloe Zeng, Demand Flow Director from Electrolux on picking up the Best Collaborative Practice Award entered the category to benchmark their performance in their industry and said it was "very exciting" and "couldn't thank her team enough for their efforts along with senior management support".

Extra congratulations were reserved for Herbalife who not only won the Supply Chain Skills category but the Supply Chain of the Year Award which represented the "winner of the evening's winners" in terms of the highest points scored. Martin Bartlett, Vice President Finance and Distributor Operations for Herbalife described the experience: "Its just quite mindblowing. When we came here we were hoping we might win one award but to have won two, especially the major award of Supply Chain of the Year is just beyond our wildest dreams I think" On being asked about winning the Supply Chain Skills category earlier in the evening and how he felt skills as an area was important to them he added "Herbalife is a sales and marketing driven company and quite often the supply chain gets ignored and I think over the last three years we have evolved and developed the supply chain in Europe to give the company a competitive edge which helps the sales and marketing team here to grow sales and top line and I think we'll continue to do that in the future and see our business grow".

Plans are now under way for next year and the 2010 ceremony promises to deliver another round of quality competitors from all over the globe as the need for supply chain strength and recognition becomes ever imperative in these challenging times. To find out more, please visit www.supplychainawards.com

About the Supply Chain Distinction Awards

• Now in its second year and forms part of the European Supply Chain and Logistics Summit (SCL Europe)
• Categories include Supply Chain Skills, Green Supply Chain, Supply Chain Innovation and Supply Chain of the Year
• Judged by an elite impartial and independent panel made up of leading organisations, editors and business school academics that have a direct involvement in the supply chain and logistics industries
• The ideal platform to showcase supply chain excellence and expertise

For more information on this year's ceremony, visit www.supplychainawards.com.

About World Trade Group

• WTG is a market-leading organizer of conferences that bring together senior executives from world-class organisations for a unique blend of knowledge sharing, networking and deal-making.
• Each year more than 5000 senior delegates – predominantly Fortune or FTSE 500 – attend one of WTG's high level business events in Europe and North America. Many of our events are now in their ninth or tenth successful year.
• Our event portfolio includes more than 40 ‘must attend' conferences and events held across Europe and North America across 8 key core industries: life sciences, media and telecoms, energy, manufacturing, business services, defence, property and technology.
• The event format pioneered by WTG features carefully researched conference programmes, combined with facilitated networking sessions to provide delegates with cutting edge information and innovative solutions.
• Visit www.wtgevents.com for more information

SOURCE: World Trade Group