PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
CAMSC Congratulates the 2012 Business Achievement Award Recipients
September 25, 2012 (TORONTO)- The Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council is pleased to announce the recipients of the 8th Annual CAMSC Business Achievement Awards. The prestigious awards are representative of the innovative talents and outstanding achievements of successful Aboriginal and Minority owned business, in addition to the corporations that are championing diversity in their supplier base, to reflect that of their local community and customer base. The Awards Gala and Ceremony will be held on September 27th at the Arcadian Court in Toronto.
Winners of the 2012 CAMSC Business Achievement Award include:
Small Business of the Year – Pressure Pipe Steel Fabrication Ltd (PPSF)
Awarded to an Aboriginal or Minority-owned business based on business growth and development, export sales growth, and major accomplishments during the previous year.
PRESSURE PIPE STEEL FABRICATION LTD. (PPSF) is a highly successful Nunatsiavut-registered company, specializing in welding and steel fabrication. It also provides services as an industrial and mining supplier. Founded in 1991 by Hilda J. Broomfield and Lionel Letemplier, (Hilda’s husband) Hilda operates the business as President and 100% Inuit shareholder. PPSF is the first company in the province of Newfoundland & Labrador to become CAMSC certified. From fundamental to high tech, any project is possible with PPSF. One of Vale and Labrador’s top suppliers, PPSF provides services to large corporations which include Grey Rock Mining, Tata Steel, SNC Lavalin, Vale and Nalor. Revenue is expected to surpass $7 Million by the end of 2012 from a modest $4.5 million in 2011, PPSF sales have tripled from 2010 – 2011 and are on track to achieving annual growth of 50% by the end of 2012. With contracts ranging in size from welding of a golf cart to manufacturing a 1 million litre above-ground storage tank, PPSF has invaluable expertise that shines through in the quality of their completed projects. This company also works very hard to engage its community and increase opportunities for financial independence, by offering local aboriginal employment and providing multifaceted training programs for its employees. It is the hope of this dream-to-reality company, that qualified individuals have the opportunity to work, receive the best training possible, and fulfill others’ dreams of becoming self sufficient. PPSF also dedicates its efforts to providing local students with the necessary work experience which may result in opportunities for potential advancement into apprenticeship and journeyperson certification.
Supplier of the Year – Green Processing Company, Inc.
Awarded to the year’s outstanding Aboriginal or Minority-owned business, based on growth and development, export sales growth, and major accomplishments during the previous year.
Green Processing Co.: In 2007, three high-school friends gathered to discuss an environmentally-friendly yet sustainable business model. Today, that model has grown into a robust, innovative, multiplatform recycling operation. From its humble beginnings, Green Processing Co. now owns a 4-acre processing facility in Windsor, Ontario, in addition to facilities in Cleveland, Ohio, and Laredo, Texas. It also purchased five additional recycling lines. Many of the hundreds of customers GPC currently serves, include Tier 1 automotive suppliers such as Magna, Linamar, Camaco and other automotive leaders. With 60 employees company-wide, GPC operates 24 hours per day, and recycles over 20,000,000 lbs annually, making it one of the largest recycling companies in Ontario. In addition to working with multinational companies in the automotive sector, GPC has had recent success with FlexNGate, a well respected Tier 1 in the automotive industry, and, a corporate member of CAMSC. When introductions to the purchasing team were made through a senior executive, GPC recognized FlexNGate’s commitment to cost-savings and environmental leadership was a natural fit, and shortly afterwards they began working closely with the FlexNGate team.
Within the last 2 years, GPC has created over 40 new jobs (salaried and hourly positions) resulting from the purchase of their 2nd facility in Windsor, a new plant in Ohio in the last 20 months, and more recently, an expansion through Texas 10 months ago . The container division of GPC, which represents 50% of the business, has grown rapidly as well; adding new customers throughout Canada, USA, and most recently in Mexico. All locations provide new, refurbished, collapsible containers for sale and there may be 20 thousand containers/totes in stock at any given time. GPC’s revenue and recycling volume has doubled year-over-year since operations began in 2007. With the help of the newest purchase, the Vecoplan shredder, what humbly began with the processing of 5,000 lbs of scrap per day in 2007 (using a 15 hp plastic grinder for the 1980’s, purchased for an old GM facility) has now grown exponentially to the capacity of processing 4,000 lbs of plastic scrap per hour. The system includes metal separation and ferrous and non-ferrous metal detection.
CATA Innovation Through Technology Award – Forming Technologies Inc.
Awarded to an Aboriginal or Minority-owned business for the most innovative new technology-based product or service, which demonstrates innovative talent in developing and successfully marketing a new concept, process or procedure. The product will have proven itself in operation and its design and market success will have enhanced Canada’s international reputation for innovation and excellence.
Founded in 1989, Forming Technologies Inc. is the world’s leading provider of software solutions for the design, feasibility, and costing of sheet metal components. FTI has provided Large manufacturers and suppliers in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, and appliance industries with innovative solutions designed to reduce development time and material costs. Annually, FTI invests more than 60% of the total revenue back into the company in areas such as R&D and human resources. In addition to its “best-in-class solutions”, FTI offers an extensive curriculum of Industry hands on Metal Stamping and Welding training courses that are developed and delivered by industry experts.
Having the right people focused on new leading edge technologies to further enhance its systems allows FTI to continually expand their existing market and expanding areas of expertise, creating additional market share within the sheet metal industry. FTI has provided costing and cost reduction sheet metal solutions to at least 1,500 companies worldwide including Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, Fiat, Mercedes, BMW, Suzuki, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Shanghai Automotive, Dong Feng Motors, FAW, Johnson Controls, Magna, Tower Automotive, to name but a few. Saving 1 gram of sheet metal material in product design equates to over 35 grams saved downstream throughout the process. Reducing the amount of material early allows our clients to attain reductions in dies, press sizes and tonnage, even manufacturing footprints can be smaller. Less weight also helps to reduce the carbon footprint of our clients and help increase fuel efficiencies. FTI has helped many clients save millions of dollars in product design by focusing on strategies and methodologies to reduce the sheet metal material costs.
For more information on Forming Technologies, visit their website: http://www.forming.com
Partnership Award – Biddingo.com
Presented for partnership or strategic alliances between organizations dedicated to facilitating procurement opportunities with Aboriginal and Minority-owned businesses.
Biddingo.com is an online portal that connects suppliers to buyers from the Provincial, Municipal, Education, Crown Corporation, Housing, Construction and Healthcare sectors as well as Private companies from across Canada. Annually, more than 40,000 bids are published and viewed by more than 80,000 supplier members. Jay Yoon, President and CEO of Biddingo, launched Biddingo almost 20 years ago. As an immigrant entrepreneur, he is all too aware of the challenges of breaking into mainstreambusiness opportunities across Canada. While building the Biddingo portal to deliver outstanding functionality and customer service to its thousands of users, Jay also built a business model that actively enables suppliers of all sizes to economically respond to bidding opportunities with municipal, provincial and private sector buying organizations across the country.
Biddingo has partnered with CAMSC to build the Diversity Business Marketplace, which offers valuable functionality to both certified suppliers and corporate members. Biddingo actively promotes CAMSC and supplier diversity to its broad membership through newsletters, banner exposure, etc. By enabling CAMSC to disseminate business opportunities to its broad network of 80,000+ suppliers, the partnership has already dramatically increased supplier registrations and enabled more diverse suppliers to respond to prequalification and bid opportunities. In addition, CAMSC certified suppliers now have access to Biddingo’s 40,000 bids at no additional cost, increasing their opportunities with thousands of public sector buying organizations.
For more information, visit www.biddingo.com.
Advocate of the Year Award
Presented to an individual who strongly promotes supplier diversity through outreach efforts/activities and is respected by their peers for advocating supplier diversity in Canada.
The Chrysler supplier diversity team and its internal advocates exemplify the passion and commitment achievable across all levels of an organization to deliver world class results in supply chain diversity. Below are just a few examples of the many initiatives they are undertaking to advocate for opportunities for certified aboriginal and minority-owned suppliers across Canada.
At the leadership level, Kevin Bell has been instrumental in developing a Best Practice scorecard approach that has delivered dramatically improved engagement from Chrysler`s broad base of Canadian (and other) Tier 1 suppliers. Rolanda Heard has led the charge in ensuring internal diversity champions understand the legal environment for supplier diversity in Canada, and empowered these commodity managers to organize webinars presented by CAMSC with their Canadian Tier 1 supplier base to broaden understanding and engagement of CAMSC certified suppliers. Sam Mahon, Production Control Manager at the Chrysler Etobicoke Casting Plant, regularly works with his staff to review plant level opportunities for CAMSC certified suppliers, and has successfully included several suppliers in bid opportunities that led to contract awards.
Working together as a team, they have dramatically increased Tier 2 opportunities for CAMSC suppliers serving the automotive sector, and from 2010 to 2011, doubled their direct spend with CAMSC certified Canadian suppliers.
Corporation of the Year – RBC
This award is for leaders who exemplify the very best in corporate practice when it comes to the promotion of supplier diversity. They constantly strive for excellence, and pro-actively include certified Aboriginal and Minority suppliers in their procurement opportunities, assist in the development of Aboriginal and Minority suppliers, and passionately promote supplier diversity and business development within their own organization as well as the broader business community.
Congratulations to RBC for being named Corporation of the Year by CAMSC for its work in driving and supporting supplier diversity.
Over the past few years, RBC has been focused on building upon its relationships with key diversity stakeholder groups like CAMSC. “Diversity for growth and innovation” is one of RBC’s Values and part of its business strategy. By understanding the value that an organization like CAMSC can bring to different companies, RBC has been actively involved in encouraging Tier 1 companies to support CAMSC through corporate memberships as well as taking the time to link diverse suppliers with CAMSC to help them understand the benefits of certification. RBC continues to demonstrate its deep commitment to promoting supplier diversity within its organization and the communities it serves, through various initiatives, including: actively participating in numerous supplier diversity related events by delivering presentations, hosting round tables, and leading panel discussions and workshops the first ever RBC mentorship workshop, to help enable diverse suppliers to be more successful in growing their businesses through developing relationships and securing business with large organizations; developing the Reciprocal Mentorship Program (RMP) that offers one-on-one mentorship to diverse, certified suppliers, and; leveraging certified supplier databases when compiling vendor lists for requests for proposals. Through these and other efforts, RBC recorded a direct (Tier 1) spend with CAMSC certified suppliers of more than $6MM in 2011, and millions more in spend with other diverse suppliers.
RBC is a founding member of CAMSC. Since its inception, RBC has understood that the business case for supplier diversity is strong. RBC is and remains a significant proponent of supplier diversity internally and in the community.
About The 8th Annual CAMSC Business Achievement Awards
The CAMSC Business Achievement Awards Gala recognizes and celebrates the outstanding successes and achievements of aboriginal and minority owned businesses as well as honours Canadian corporations who are champions in diversifying their supply chain to reflect their local community and customer base.
This year, CAMSC’s Business Achievement Awards will take place on Thursday, September 27th at the Arcadian Court, in Toronto. Michael Pinball Clemons will be delivering the keynote presentation prior to the Awards Ceremony.
Anne-Marie Mediwake, CBC News Anchor and Broadcaster, will host as master of ceremonies for the evening, and present awards for Canada’s most successful Aboriginal and Minority-owned businesses. These innovative suppliers are creating opportunities and employment for themselves and their communities.
About CAMSC:
Founded by corporate Canada in 2004, CAMSC acts to facilitate access for Aboriginal and minority-owned suppliers who may not previously have been able to penetrate traditional corporate supply chains. In return, corporations are gaining choice, innovation, competitiveness and social license by accessing an underutilized yet growing supplier base in their communities. CAMSC is associated with the National Minority Supplier Development Council in the U.S.
Media Contact:
Danielle Tomarelli
Events & Communications Manager
CAMSC
Direct: 416.941 0004 ext.223
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