In its commitment to forge stronger partnerships with global suppliers and continually improve its supply chain, Universal Robina Corp. held its first UR Partner Global Supplier Excellence Awards on April 14, 2023. The event recognized the exemplary performance of the organization’s suppliers and acknowledged those who contributed significantly to URC's success in delighting everyone with good food choices.
URC Chairman Lance Y. Gokongwei, who also serves as the president and CEO of JG Summit Holdings, kicked off the awards program with a welcome message. Highlighting the value of strong partnerships with the company’s suppliers, he shared, “URC stayed strongly afloat throughout the pandemic years. We closed 2022 with unprecedented business performance. We continue to be in nine out of 10 Filipino households. We could not have done all these without you – our valued partners – who have been with us through all the highs and lows of these past few years. We look forward to an even stronger collaboration and more solid teamwork with you, and many more great years ahead, with you by our side.”
Another main goal of the Global Supplier Excellence Awards, which is to enable suppliers in their efforts to continuously improve and be more sustainable, is shared by a complementary initiative of URC — the UR Partner-Global Supplier Excellence Program. Launched in 2022, it involves the company’s Global Procurement, Quality Assurance, Planning, and Sustainability teams. The program is anchored on four pillars, namely: Supplier Optimization, Supplier Performance Management, Sustainable Procurement, and Risk Management and Supplier Engagement.
These pillars are reflected in the six awards categories – the UR Partner Collaboration Award, Quality Excellence Award, Quality Award, Supplier Reliability Excellence Award, Extra Mile Award, and Supplier of the Year Award, which were presented during the program. More than 35 of the company’s top suppliers who have consistently demonstrated excellence in the areas of quality, reliability, collaboration, sustainability, efficiency, and customer service were in attendance to proudly receive their awards.
As the program neared its conclusion, URC Vice President for Operations, Supply Chain, and Technology David J. Lim shared the positive impact that the continued partnerships have on the organization. “Thank you, all our valued partners who have been providing our company with essential materials and commodities, packaging, equipment, transportation and logistics, IT support and other services, which have enabled URC to continue to delight everyone with good food choices and serve our consumers all over the world. We sincerely thank you for your partnership and strong contribution to support what we do. Indeed, you are our partners in ‘Fortifying our Futures’,” said Lim.
Adding to this narrative, URC President and CEO Irwin C. Lee shared how the company’s current success was the culmination of strategies set almost five years ago, with the cultural transformation within the organization as well as the collaboration with its suppliers all playing a major role. Focusing on these shared efforts, Lee said that it was important to “be humble enough to know within URC that we don’t know all of the answers and a lot of improvements have to come from the outside. A lot of innovation ideas can come from our suppliers and, indeed, I have seen a lot of those come to life over the last five years.” Lee added that the spirit of strong, mutually beneficial partnerships is “something we want to make sure to carry forward, because that is the foundation we want to set, that we can collaborate well together.”
For more information on URC, visit urc.com.ph
