Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Ceremony
April 19, 2006

Mr. Vice President…Secretary Gutierrez…members of the Baldrige family…the Baldrige program staff, the Board of Examiners, distinguished guests…and fellow recipients of the 2005 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. It is an honor to be here with you all today and to represent the 620 stakeholders of Sunny Fresh Foods earned this recognition.

It is also a special honor to have Kevin Cook, Senior Vice President of McDonald's-U.S. Restaurant Systems, Pat Tracy, CEO of DOT Foods, and Beth Schnell, CEO of Sparboe Companies joining us. Their companies have helped shape Sunny Fresh Foods into the company it is today.

As a business that has been recognized with this honor twice, the most common questions I get asked tend to focus in two areas:

First, why does Sunny Fresh Foods go through all the work and effort of continuing to apply for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award?

And, second, what does receiving this award a second time mean to you?

Well, as to why: The most important reason is that the entire organization wanted to. The 620 stakeholders at Sunny Fresh Foods look to the Baldrige criteria as a way to continue to improve. The 1999 award was a fantastic milestone for our business, but everyone knew it wasn't an end, it was a beginning… to better serving our customers, to new, exciting dreams about our future and to a new era of growth.

And what does it mean to me and to Sunny Fresh?

Well, the first thing I'd say is "sustainability"! I cannot think of a better way to verify the sustainability of a business model than using the MBNQA process to confirm that your founding business principles continue to be the foundation upon which you grow! And this has been especially important at Sunny Fresh Foods since we've had such rapid growth since 1999. Three plants have grown to five, 380 stakeholders have grown to 620, our revenue has doubled and we are a net exporter of talent to Cargill. So, while the senior leadership team has over 125 years of Sunny Fresh service, only four of us were on the management team in 1999.

This very significant milestone is the best way to continue to improve. Our stakeholders are never satisfied…not only do they want to satisfy our customers, they want to delight them. They are not satisfied with a proud history of strong growth; they strive for a future dream that they helped define and they are not satisfied with resting on our Feedback Reports' identified strengths, no they want to continue to learn and continue to get better.

And, finally, I do get asked, "can Sunny Fresh Foods really get better?" And, to that we all say:

"YES, WE CAN!!

News release on the ceremony for the 2005 Baldrige winners

Posted: 4/20/06
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