STIHL has honoured five companies with the Supplier of the Year 2020 award. Among all of STIHL's suppliers around the world, these five stood out on account of their outstanding attributes in terms of quality, technology, innovation, service and cost efficiency. In his speech thanking the nominees and winners, Martin Schwarz, STIHL Executive Board Member Manufacturing and Materials, stressed how valuable good and reliable partnerships have been over the past year in particular. "Thanks to your extraordinary dedication, your outstanding reliability and excellent collaboration, we managed to keep producing despite the very tense and challenging situation," Martin Schwarz said in his speech. "We raised our revenue by 16.5 per cent in 2020 and saw a significant increase in sales." The tremendous importance of good, long-standing supplier relationships at STIHL is reflected not least in the decision to honour certain partners again after already having done so in previous years. Of the five companies to receive the award, two were recognised for the third time (Nittan, Radici), with one being acclaimed for the fourth time (Sonax). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the winners received the award as part of a digital video message, as in the previous year.
The best suppliers in 2020 were:
- Nittan Valve Co., Ltd (Hadano, Japan)
Engine valves
- Radici Novacips S.p.A. (Gandino, Italy)
Plastic granulate
- R & S Event (St. Johann, Austria)
Support and development of TIMBERSPORTS®
- Smaragd Medien GmbH (Grünwald, Germany)
Support and development of TIMBERSPORTS®
- SONAX GmbH (Neuburg an der Donau, Germany)
Manufacturer and bottler of cleaning agents, bottler of motor oils
STIHL has been honouring the best suppliers for their outstanding performance every year since 1990. To date, a total of 111 suppliers have received this distinction, some of them several times.