After a year of unprecedented challenges for its supply chain in 2020, leading brewer Lion proudly reinstated its annual supplier awards last night, this year bringing together its suppliers from across Australia and New Zealand for a virtual event to recognise their exceptional contributions across packaging, ingredients, services, logistics, as well as in the special category of ‘Think Beyond, Innovate and Adapt’ and the top award for ‘Supplier of the Year’.
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.
Lion CEO Stuart Irvine was joined by Group Supply Chain Director Ian Roberts and Supply Chain Solutions Director Irene Bell to acknowledge the outstanding list of nominees and announce the winners in a virtual awards ceremony celebrating sociability and achievement, attended by more than 50 representatives from Lion’s supply partners.
“After everything we navigated in partnership with our amazing suppliers across Australia and New Zealand in 2020, this year’s awards carry extra special meaning,” Mr Irvine said.
“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.
“Whether it relates to the way our brands and products bring people together, our social inclusion targets to create a more equal workplace, or to help future generations live well through our commitment to doing the right thing for the long term, our supply partners are there to collaborate with us and help us succeed. And so, tonight’s awards are about paying tribute to them and the role they play in ensuring Lion’s success on a daily basis.”
Lion Group Supply Chain Director Ian Roberts said 2020 was a particularly challenging year for the industry, and the awards were all 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,” Mr Roberts said.
Full list of nominees and award winners:
Award: Packaging
Winner: Visy Glass
Nominees: Labelmakers, Westrock
Justification: 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% recycled content in our packaging material by 2025.
Award: Ingredients
Winner: Hop Products Australia
Nominees: Yakima Chief Hops, Barrett Burston Malting
Justification: Hops Products Australia have been a supplier to Lion for more than 50 years. They provide juicy and flavoursome hops and various hop products to all Lion’s breweries.
Award: Site Services/Engineering
Winner: Foodmach
Nominees: Beca, Ecolab
Justification: Foodmach are Australian packaging system engineer suppliers with 20 years of first-class service and quality workmanship to Lion. They have 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.
Award: Logistics
Winner: Henning Harders
Nominees: Sorted Logistics, Bevchain AU
Justification: 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.
Award: Think Beyond, Adapt and Innovate
Winner: Sorted Logistics
Justification: Sorted Logistics are 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.
Award: Supplier of the Year
Winner: Labelmakers
Justification: Labelmakers provide Lion with paper and pressure sensitive labels. We have been in partnership for over 15 years.
Labelmakers have maintained an outstanding level of performance to support Lion.
Labelmakers are genuine, transparent, and work hard on building relationships, across the organisation. Their dedication to support our business is second to none.
Media contact:
Elizabeth Bold
+61 421 765 446