CAMSC CELEBRATES ABORIGINAL AND MINORITY ENTREPRENEUR ACHIEVEMENTS
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
9th 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.
CAMSC’s Business Achievement Awards was held on Thursday, September 26th at the Arcadian Court, in Toronto. Mr. Nitin Kawale, President of Cisco Canada delivered the keynote presentation prior to the Awards Ceremony.
Farley Flex,hosted as master of ceremonies for the evening, and presented awards for Canada’s most successful Aboriginal and Minority-owned businesses. These innovative suppliers are creating opportunities and employment for themselves and their communities.
This year CAMSC presented an special achievement award to The Honourable Donald H.Oliver in recognition of his personal commitment, dedication and tireless efforts towards advancing diversity both in Canada and globally. Senator Oliver strongly believes that Canada’s Visible Minority community needs a nation-wide business development and entrepreneurship organization.
Winners of the 2013 CAMSC Business Achievement Award include:
Small Business of the Year – Master Manufacturing Inc.
Awarded to an Aboriginal or Minority-owned business based on business growth and development, export sales growth, and major accomplishments during the previous year.
Master Manufacturing Inc., an ISO 9001 registered company, offers one-stop packaging solutions for the automotive industry. Experienced designers, Pradeep and Neera Saxena launched Master Manufacturing after having difficulty finding a manufacturer that could produce their designs to the quality and specifications they had developed.
Master Manufacturing started as a rack manufacturing facility, but soon expanded to incorporate the design and fabrication of vinyl bags to offer automotive clients the most innovation solutions to their component packaging needs.
Despite the economic challenges, Master Manufacturing has grown steadily through the recession by investing in new design software, introducing new quality inspection processes, focusing on achieving zero waste in the plant and enhancing energy efficiency. Their efforts to offer innovative yet cost effective solutions has paid off, as Master Manufacturing has secured direct contract awards with Chrysler, GM, Toyota, ABC Group, and a range of other automotive manufacturers. Last year, their revenues grew 65%, and they created 12 new jobs, nearly doubling their workforce.
Supplier of the Year – Forward Signs 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.
Philip and Simon Ho founded Forward Signs in 1986, catering to local businesses within the greater Toronto area. Hard work and perseverance enabled the brothers to steadily gain the confidence of their customers, growing from simple yet creative signage products to a comprehensive suite of indoor and outdoor signage, banner, metal cladding and retrofit lighting solutions.
They have expanded dramatically over the past 5 years, moving to a new 50,000 square foot facility that now employs over 100 skilled staff. Sales have more than doubled in the past 5 years, with annual revenue growth this year of 30% projected by year end. Boasting a client base which encompasses major brand names such as BMO, CIBC, TD Bank, Bell, Staples, Smart Centres, Oxford Properties, Governments and many others, they continue to ensure that they deliver the highest standards of excellence to their client’s ever-changing needs. This includes ongoing technology and staff training investments to deliver state-of –the-art manufacturing and enhance product offerings, for example a recent Photopolymer machine to assist clients in meeting ADA accessibility guidelines. Demonstrating their principles of quality and precision, flexibility and creativity, Forward Signs recently secured the largest competitively-bid contract the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games Organizing Committee has awarded to a diverse supplier, for temporary outdoor signage and banners. Forward Signs exemplifies the business case for supplier diversity, by delivering innovative solutions, creating employment and wealth in their community, as well as facilitating global market linkages, through their newly created Canadian Municipal Business Gateway (CMBG) platform.
CATA Innovation Through Technology Award – Nulogy
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.
Nulogy is a leading provider of specialized solutions for complex supply-chain challenges. Nulogy’s flagship PackManager is a software-as-a-service product suite that optimizes contract packaging operations through real-time management of inventory, production, costing and quoting. Nominated by Kellogg Company for this award, they boast a customer base which includes DHL, Unilever, Kellogg, Kraft, Mondelēz International, L’Oreal and many other brands and co-pack suppliers.
It has been an eventful year for Nulogy. Over the past 12 months they’ve grown their R&D budget by over 50%, and launched and commercialized 3 new innovations that are patent-pending. They have also developed their flagship PackManager solution in 5 languages, to facilitate global supply chain adoption. They have seen over 70% growth in revenues over the past 12 months, and their technology is now being used on 4 continents.
Listed amongst the C100’s top 100 Canadian Technology companies, and as one of CIX20’s top 20 Canadian Innovation Exchange companies, they are truly enhancing Canada’s international reputation for innovation and excellence.
Advocate of the Year Award – Albert B.W. Louis, Director, Supplier Diversity & Business Development, Johnson Controls Inc.
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.
Since joining the CAMSC Board approximately 2 years ago, Al Louis, Director of Supplier Diversity and Business Development of Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI), has advocated tirelessly across Canada for supplier diversity.
JCI is a recognized leader in supplier diversity in the automotive sector. However, last year Al supported the expansion of JCI’s supplier diversity processes to the Building Efficiency divisions across Canada by leading a JCI Talkback session, and sharing best practices with diverse suppliers as well as corporate partners and clients. Recognizing CAMSC`s need to identify additional suppliers across Canada, Al has also been instrumental in helping CAMSC to expand national awareness of supplier diversity.
In the past 18 months, Al has actively supported outreach sessions in Vancouver, in Winnipeg in association with the Manitoba Metis Federation, in Halifax with the Black Business Initiative, and will soon be joining us in Calgary. His efforts have increased JCI’s spend with certified CAMSC suppliers, as well as helped CAMSC to attract numerous new suppliers in the building efficiency and other sectors.
Al has also invested considerable time and energy to develop and lead the inaugural CAMSC Corporate Learning Centre, sharing best practices and peer mentorship to strengthen and enhance six Canadian companies’ supplier diversity processes. Al is truly a passionate advocate who strongly believes that supplier diversity benefits not only the suppliers and corporations who work with them, but also the long-term competitiveness of the Canadian economy.
Partnership Award – PurchasingB2B magazine
Presented for partnership or strategic alliances between organizations dedicated to facilitating procurement opportunities with Aboriginal and Minority-owned businesses.
For over 55 years, PurchasingB2B magazine has provided leadership to Canadian procurement and supply chain management professionals through delivering quality industry information. PurchasingB2B supports the supply chain community by providing multiple channels for its readers, suppliers and association partners to share their expertise and knowledge.
Since 2011, CAMSC has enjoyed a close relationship with PurchasingB2B. While the relationship began with CAMSC participating at one of PurchasingB2B’s thought leadership roundtables on Supplier Diversity, it has evolved into a formal partnership agreement with PurchasingB2B, which has resulted in a focused effort to both showcase and educate the Canadian purchasing community on the growth and evolving integration of supplier diversity as a competitive advantage in supply chain management.
PurchasingB2B has highlighted examples of leading practices in supplier diversity amongst Canadian companies, as well as profiled diverse suppliers that have delivered business value to their corporate clients. As a result of our relationship, PurchasingB2B has advanced overall exposure and the corporate knowledge base of supplier diversity in Canada, as well as increased awareness of the council and activities that CAMSC undertakes to promote Aboriginal and minority suppliers in the Canadian supply chain.
Corporation of the Year – TELUS
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.
In just two short years, TELUS has exemplified the leadership, passion and commitment to an inclusive supply chain that has quickly earned them recognition as one of Canada’s corporate leaders in supplier diversity. With a team of talented professionals led by David Sharma, Chief Procurement Officer & Senior Vice President, the TELUS procurement and supply chain organization became an active participant with CAMSC as part of their commitment to accelerating the TELUS supplier diversity program.
The success of TELUS’ program has been driven from support at all levels of the business, a commitment to educating their internal & external stakeholders and leveraging fair process to include internal team members in shaping and executing the supplier diversity strategy. In fact, TELUS takes it a step further by incorporating supplier diversity performance metrics into the compensation program for their senior leaders.
The TELUS sourcing team actively participates in a wide range of outreach events to connect with new diverse suppliers, and takes the initiative to share their knowledge and experience with other members of the CAMSC organization through supplier development workshops, hosting events, round tables as well as contributing to the new CAMSC Supplier Diversity Playbook. TELUS also recently launched their Executive Protégé program, with the goal of developing targeted strategies to strengthen and grow CAMSC, WeConnect and CGLCC certified suppliers.
TELUS recognizes that both their company and the Canadian economy gain through collaborative efforts to build supplier diversity across Canada. They have successfully encouraged a number of their strategic partners and prime suppliers to embrace supplier diversity within their organizations. TELUS’ passion and commitment has generated significant results. In just 18 months, TELUS has already included more than 10 CAMSC certified suppliers in bid opportunities, and increased spend with CAMSC certified suppliers from just $120,000 in 2012, to awarding a contract worth $3.75 million in 2013.
The supplier diversity program will continue to deliver innovation and competitiveness to TELUS, whist building wealth within the communities where they live, work and serve.
Special Achievement Award – The Honourable Donald H.Oliver.
This special award was presented to an individual or group of individuals in recognition of their significant achievements in the area of Diversity.
CAMSC recognized Senator Donald Oliver for his personal commitment, dedication and tireless efforts towards advancing diversity both in Canada and globally.
Years ago, the Senator personally spearheaded, and was the driving force behind a new initiative to create such an organization, modeled on the highly successful Black Business Initiative (BBI) in Nova Scotia.
The BBI is a province-wide business development initiative committed to fostering the growth of businesses owned by members of the Nova Scotia Black Community. Since its inception in 1995, the BBI has created more than 600 jobs, assisted thousands of Black Nova Scotians and has served as a catalyst for 110 start-up businesses and 105 expansion loans. As of 2011, it had issued approximately $2.2 million in loans with repayment of $1.8 million and 53% of these companies are still in operation today.
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:
Tatiane Evaristo
Corporate & Business Analyst
CAMSC
Direct: 416.941 0004 ext.221
– 30 –