Six suppliers receive STIHL award

Waiblingen-based ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG honored six suppliers with its "Supplier of the Year 2006" award. The award-winning suppliers are among some 300 companies throughout the world from which STIHL currently purchases production materials and components. The certificates that go with the awards were presented at a special ceremony by Dr. Bertram Kandziora, chairman of the executive board and senior vice president, manufacturing and materials at STIHL.

STIHL has presented the "Supplier of the Year” award to a total of 70 suppliers since 1990. Nineteen of  those companies have won the award twice, and three as many as three times. In the meantime, the purchasing volume of the STIHL founding company has grown to about €383 million. The supplier structure reflects the company’s policy of international sourcing. In the last seventeen years a total of seventeen suppliers from France, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, the United States, Switzerland, Slovenia, China and Japan have received the coveted award.

The assessment criteria for the award were: outstanding accomplishments with respect to quality, technology, innovation, service and price-performance ratio. The “Supplier of the Year” award spotlights the suppliers who have supported STIHL in a special way with their high supply quality, punctual deliveries, flexibility, cooperation and special know-how.

The share of STIHL's total purchasing volume in other countries currently amounts to 50 percent. Apart from Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, the most important countries for the STIHL Group's sourcing include several eastern European countries and, in particular, Asian countries, and this tendency is growing. This international purchasing structure contributes considerably to securing the company's competitiveness on world markets.

The six award-winning suppliers in 2006 are:

Hugo Vogelsang, Germany    
(Steel strip)

Variety Die & Stamping, USA     
(Mufflers)

KAAZ, Japan      
(Gearboxes)

Paul H.Kübler, Germany     
(Protective clothing)

Festo, Germany      
(Automation technology)

HN-Präzisionstechnik, Germany
(High precision steel components)
 

Company Portrait
The STIHL Group develops, manufactures and distributes outdoor power equipment for forestry, landscape maintenance and the construction industry. The product line is supplemented by the VIKING range of garden tools and equipment. Products are sold exclusively through servicing dealers. The STIHL sales and distribution organization consists of 32 sales subsidiaries, more than 120 importers and some 35,000 dealers in more than 160 countries. STIHL has been the world’s biggest selling chain saw brand since 1971. The company was founded in 1926 and is based in Waiblingen near Stuttgart.

Voucher copy requested.

Captions:

Picture 1: The chairman of the STIHL executive board, Dr. Bertram Kandziora, talking to a representative of KAAZ (gearboxes) from Japan.
Picture 2: The "Suppliers of the Year 2006" watch the products - which they contributed to - in use. 
Picture 3: The STIHL suppliers "talk shop": The end product is being examined.
Picture 4: The six award-winning suppliers in 2006 are Hugo Vogelsang (Germany, Steel strip), Variety Die & Stamping (USA, Mufflers), KAAZ (Japan, Gearboxes), Paul H.Kübler (Germany, Protective clothing), Festo (Germany, Automation technology), HN-Präzisionstechnik (Germany, High precision steel components).
 

 

Photograph: STIHL (Reprint free of charge / voucher copy requested)