Cargill Excellence Award USA



Cargill Incorporated, an international processor and distributor of agricultural and food products and their Sweetener Division hosted a luncheon on July 28, 2004 at their corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota to recognize AESSEAL®.

The celebration was attended by some key members of AESSEAL® internal team, including Managing Director, Chris Rea; Contract Manager, Jerry Carberry; AESSEAL® Board Member, Jeff Hamilton; and AESSEAL Inc. President, Tom Grove.

Above: Jim Prokopanko, (2nd from right) Corporate VP, is joined by from left, Bob Griffith, Chris Rea, Tom Grove and Valerie Conard.

Cargill was represented by Division Purchasing Manager, Valerie Conard; Senior Purchasing Manager, Doug Jensen; Oil Seed Plant Operations Manager, Jim Bell; Assistant Vice President Facility Operations, Al Johnson; Corporate Vice President, Jim Prokopanko; and Bob Griffith, the Maintenance and Reliability Team Leader

The results of the first five years were summarized in the 2nd Quarter Executive Report prepared for Cargill by AESSEAL®. The report detailed how improvement in MTBF has been confirmed by a reduction in procurement expenditures.

Following the presentation, Cargill hosted the luncheon in one of their executive conference rooms. Valerie Conard and Bob Griffith presented AESSEAL® with a new award: The Pillar of Excellence Award. Conard stated, “The AESSEAL® program is our premier purchasing agreement and one by which we measure other programs. The award captures our Cargill procurement model; the three pillars we value: high performance, customer focus, and innovations.”

Tom Grove was proud to accept the award again on behalf of a hard-working group of individuals. Both the internal and external staff have acted together as an outstanding team.

According to Grove “We have true professional relationships that are centered on improvement. We are constantly looking for ways to improve the reliability of Cargill’s rotating equipment. The implementation of our Water Management System, coupled with strong performance tracking, has been the key to the success of the program.”


Cargill Supplier Award Turkey

Cargill, one of the worlds largest corn milling manufacturers has sealed their approval of AESSEAL® by awarding them their top supplier performance award.

Kenan Sezgin, Head of AESSEAL Turkiye said “It gives me great pleasure to announce that we have been awarded first place in the ‘Product Sector’ category.”

AESSEAL Turkey won this award for continuously high standards in the areas of Customer Focus, High Performance and Innovation.


Above: Kenan Sezgin, Head of AESSEAL Turkiye accepts the award from Martin Verploegh, Cargill European Procurement Management.

Muharrem Sari, the AESSEAL® Sales Engineer who services the Cargill account, said “Winning an award such as this, which is totally attributed to customer relations, is an indicator of our vision 'to give customers such exceptional service that they need never consider alternative sources of supply'. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to make it happen.”

Cargill operates two plants in the Orhangazi and Pendik regions of Turkey. Orhangazi is the main plant in which 300 pumps are running.


Above: From left to right; Peter Clarke, Cargill European Purchasing Manager; Andrew Glass, General Manager of Cargill Europe; Martin Verploegh, Cargill European Procurement Manager; Kenan Sezgin; Hale Toker; Can Uskadarli; Halenur Agis from the Cargill Purchasing Department.

Kenan Sezgin, Head of AESSEAL Turkiye, said “The award means a lot to AESSEAL® because it was voted for by a total of 63 employees from Cargill. So to win it you have to provide high levels of service to many people in many departments. AESSEAL® was also up against 45 other suppliers including Shell, SKF and Maximo software.”

top