DS Smith receives Nestlé Relationship Excellence Award

For the third time already, Nestlé honoured suppliers for outstanding performances as part of the Nestlé Supplier Awards at the German head office in Frankfurt.

In 2013, DS Smith received the Gold Supplier Award from Nestlé. In 2015, DS Smith was again amongst the top 20 suppliers. At this year’s award presentation ceremony, DS Smith received the Nestlé Relationship Award. This prize was awarded for the first time and honours the supplier whose team achieved by far the best relationship and performance with regards to collaboration. Among several thousands of suppliers, DS Smith has been the only company so far that was among the top 20 Nestlé suppliers for three times in a row.This year’s Nestlé Supplier Award went under the slogan “Design quality together”. Among the invited top 20 suppliers that were chosen from several thousands of suppliers were representatives of suppliers from agricultural raw materials to packaging materials. As part of the event, DS Smith was honoured with a special prize for its long-standing high service availability and flexibility and thus for efforts that go beyond the scope of a conventional supplier relationship: The company received the Nestlé Relationship Award. DS Smith has been a “preferred supplier” of Nestlé for over 25 years.

Beatrice Guillaume-Grabisch, Chairwoman of Nestlé Germany, emphasised during the award ceremony: “‘Design quality together’ also means to learn from each other and to jointly address problems in supply chains. Also the consumers benefit from that – and as Nestlé as a company, we can only satisfy consumers in the long run by providing quality. The readiness to proactively contribute to this is what characterises all award winners this year.”

“Only because of the extraordinary efforts, creativity and the great commitment of all involved employees it was possible to be awarded the Nestlé Relationship Award as the best partner among several thousands of suppliers”, said Per V Frederiksen, Managing Director at DS Smith for the region of Germany and Switzerland. According to him, this award confirms the high customer orientation of the display & packaging strategists.

“Our employees bring in all their knowledge, ideas and commitment for collaboration with our customers. This makes it possible to delight our customers sustainably. For several years, Marco Hilpert, our Strategic Account Manager, has been responsible for our customer Nestlé Germany, who, together with his team, considerably shaped this positive development.

The award is an incentive for us to live up to the high standards also in the future.

DS Smith delivers innovative packaging solutions and creative display concepts made of corrugated cardboard for different Nestlé brands, among others for Maggi and Nescafé. In doing so, the Display & Packaging Strategists of DS Smith use an approach that is unique in the packaging industry. For all projects, the entire supply cycle of its customers is at the centre of considerations.

In the DS Smith Impact Centre, customer representatives from different fields such as marketing, supply chain management and purchasing get together. The results of these workshops are concrete aspects and ideas for optimising their own packaging and displays. During the subsequent workshop at one of the DS Smith PackRight Centres, these teams then develop specific viable solutions together with DS Smith designers.

This process brings all relevant aspects up for discussion and thus helps to find solutions which significantly reduce the complexity of processes, increase sales and lower costs. Another positive aspect is the significant reduction of the Time-to-market. This is an important aspect for FMCG manufacturers, considering the increasing pressure to launch new products faster and faster.