For an unprecedented third straight year, Graham Packaging Company, L.P., was honored by the H. J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ) as its Supplier of the Year in the packaging category. Graham Packaging won for performance measures that include service, quality and innovation.
The award was presented June 3 in Pittsburgh at Heinz North America's annual Supplier Symposium. Heinz has been a Graham Packaging customer since the late 1980s and is the largest customer in the company's food packaging division. Graham Packaging provides all PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic containers to Heinz - primarily ketchup containers.
All of our supplier partners play critical roles in helping Heinz succeed, which is why we host the Heinz North America Annual Supplier Symposium and Awards, said Chris Stockwell, vice president of procurement for Heinz North America. Graham Packaging consistently provides superior service and cutting-edge packaging innovation, which has earned the company Heinz's most prestigious supplier award for the third year in a row.
Winning Supplier of the Year three times in a row is a very special honor, said Frank Hilton, director of sales for Graham Packaging. We continue to focus on integrating our resources with Heinz in such a way that we can help them respond quickly and efficiently to their market demands. We dedicate product development, design engineering, and manufacturing resources within our company to meet their specific needs.
Graham Packaging manufactures containers for Heinz at a plant in Fremont, Ohio, within five miles of Heinz's principal Ketchup manufacturing facility. This proximity holds down costs, improves service, and helps Heinz reduce its carbon footprint, said Lance Novotny, regional manager of manufacturing.
Paul Bailie, vice president and business manager for food packaging at Graham Packaging also pointed out Graham Packaging's role in the development of sustainable and innovative packaging with Heinz. We worked jointly with Heinz to develop consumer-friendly ergonomic packages that use recycled plastic to produce a package that is recyclable, creating a ‘virtuous cycle' of sustainability, said Bailie. The bottles we make for Heinz using our proprietary SurShotTM multi-layer technology are the only ketchup bottles in the market that contain post-consumer recycled plastic.
We collaborated with Heinz on a new inverted 20-ounce ketchup bottle for the food-service market that has a unique patented design and non-removable closure for a PET container, said Joe Labadie, Sr., packaging engineer. These are a few examples of the productive and rewarding working relationship we've built with Heinz.
