European Quality Award - TNT Awards
At a gala ceremony in Paris on October 22 John Roberts CBE President of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) presented the 1998 European Quality Award to Alan Jones OBE Managing Director of TNT UK Limited.
Following an objective examination by an eight strong team of experienced EFQM assessors drawn from the ranks of major blue-chip organisations across Europe the successful express delivery and logistics service provider has secured an accolade which is widely recognised as the pinnacle of achievement in Total Quality Management (TQM).
TNT UK Limited fought off stiff competition from numerous well regarded companies to be recognised with this latest accolade which is the most prestigious business excellence award in Europe.
TNT UK Limited is the only organisation to win four European Quality Prizes for business excellence and the company is also a winner of the UK Quality Award. European Quality Prizes are awarded each year to organisations which can demonstrate role-model performance in business excellence and these have now been won by TNT UK in 1995, 1996,1997 and 1998. The best company amongst the European Quality Prize winners is also honoured with the European Quality Award.
Accepting the 1998 European Quality Award Alan Jones said: "Winning the European Quality Award is a tribute to the twelve thousand TNT UK staff who have helped us achieve leadership in our extremely competitive express delivery and time sensitive logistics markets. The sheer enthusiasm of our people and the must get through attitude which prevails everywhere in the company keeps us ahead of the opposition."
"We move consignments from A to B and this of course is not extraordinary. However we also work to the tightest deadlines, consistently recover time for our customers and thread complex processes into seamless operations all of which requires exceptional performance from the first class TNT UK team."
"Our profits have doubled in the last five years and the EFQM business excellence model has helped us develop the ethic of continuous improvement which exists throughout the organisation. We have discovered that the EFQM business excellence model is a most effective blueprint for achieving sustained improvements in competitiveness."
Revealing the key factors which put TNT UK ahead of the other eight 1998 European Quality Award finalists, EFQM Chief Executive Officer Alain de Dommartin said: "The European Quality Award is about excellence - excellence in a broad sweep of results and excellence in the management of processes and procedures that generate results. TNT UK exhibits all of these attributes and demonstrates perfectly how TQM applied consistently is an excellent vehicle for continuous improvement."