bat south africa - Excellence at British American Tobacco South Africa garners acclaim

British American Tobacco (BAT) South Africa has recently been honoured at a number of awards ceremonies for its outstanding service and quality. 

The Company was named “best supplier”, for the second time, at the TOTAL 2010 Awards for its Trade Marketing in the Africa/Middle East Region (AME) on the 3rd of March 2010. The winners, selected by Total retailers, are judged on the service they deliver – especially ‘on time, in full’ - plus the quality of promotional support, materials and marketing activity.

This service delivery excellence is, in part, due to the implementation of a Direct Store Sales (DSS) system in April 2008, to ensure that retailers were being offered the best service.  Under the DSS model, retailers have the choice to purchase products directly from the BAT South Africa, with the Trade Marketing team taking responsibility for orders and deliveries. Great efforts have been implemented to benchmark this service, which have now been recognised.

“This is the highest form of praise and recognition that we can receive from a customer,” says Brian McCurrach, Marketing Director. “We are determined in our mission to replicate this achievement across all of our customers in South Africa.”

At another awards ceremony, the inaugural South African Quality Awards, run under the auspices of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), BAT South Africa’s Heidelberg factory was one of the three finalists in the “Best Enterprise” category.

According to Tshenge Demana, Chief Director of Technical Infrastructure at the DTI, these awards were established to promote and raise awareness of the need for quality assurance, quality management and the different methods on how to achieve quality.

The awards comprised five categories and were adjudicated by the SABA, SA National Accreditation Systems (SANAS) and the National Metrology Institute of SA (NMISA).