Supplier of the year 2010

Best CLAAS supplier comes from East-Westphalia

The CLAAS Supplier Award 2010 went to Rippert Anlagentechnik in Herzebrock-Clarholz: (left to right) Rüdiger Mohr (Claas Group Purchasing), Thomas Rippert (Managing Partner), Andreas Ritterbach (Sales & Project Manager), Christophe Perge (Purchasing, CLAAS Tractor, Le Mans).

Under the motto ‘Growing Challenges – Creating Innovative Solutions’, around 600 selected suppliers to the CLAAS Group met at the ‘Supplier’s Day’. Once again this year, the highlight was the award of the ‘supplier’s Oscar’. The main award went to Rippert Anlagetechnik from East-Westphalia, which has already installed modern coating plants at two CLAAS locations, in Paderborn and in Le Mans in France.

The Supplier’s Day is a forum established seven years ago by CLAAS for the purpose of continually developing cooperation with supplier partners. Helmut Claas welcomed the guests in the Technoparc and introduced Rüdiger Mohr as the new Group Purchasing Manager.

Hans Lampert, member of the CLAAS Group’s Board of Directors and responsible for finance, controlling and business administration, provided an overview of the development of the CLAAS Group last year. He stressed that CLAAS had acquitted itself well in the foregoing crisis year. “There’s a great deal of power not only in our machines, but also in our balance sheet”, he said. Guest speaker this year was Klemens Kalverkamp, managing director of the Grimme agricultural machinery factory near Osnabrück. He spoke about the ever increasing speed with which innovations follow one another today. His message was: “Only a pronounced culture of trust and cooperation makes us capable of maximum creativity and innovative ability.”

During a works inspection the participants were able to see live how CLAAS machines are built. In addition, they had the opportunity to drive a combine harvester, field chopper or tractor themselves over the test circuit at the Loermann farm, just a few kilometres from the CLAAS works.

At the end of the day Rippert, as overall winner, and four other companies were presented with the CLAAS suppliers’ awards in a style reminiscent of the Oscar ceremony. Rüdiger Mohr presented the awards in the categories Quality, Logistics, Innovation and Service. He said: “The awards reflect the good cooperation with our suppliers. The results of this cooperation are the new products that we can offer our customers.”