SAM Mouldings Wins the European Quality Award 2002

SAM Mouldings, the UK and Ireland's premier MDF moulding manufacturer has won the European Quality Award 2002.

The owners of the company, Sam and Julienne McCrea, were presented with the award by Princess Christina of Spain, at a gala dinner held in the National Museum of Catalonian Art in Barcelona on Wednesday 30th October 2002.

In Barcelona with the SME Category Award.
This was a significant achievement for SAM Mouldings. Out of 16 finalist organisations across five categories including international giants like Siemens, Bosch, and Renault, SAM Mouldings was the only company chosen to receive the coveted Quality Award.

SAM Mouldings, currently employing 79 people and based in Antrim, Northern Ireland, manufactures mouldings from medium density fibreboard including skirting, architrave, door frame and cornice for the construction and home improvement industries. Its products can be found in thousands of public buildings and houses across the British Isles.

The European Quality Awards are designed to recognise organisational performance and improvement across the nine categories of the European Business Excellence Model - Leadership, Policy & Strategy, People Management, Partnership & Resources, Processes, Customer Results, People Results, Society Results, and Key Performance Results.

Managing Director, Sam McCrea said that the company had impressed the jury which consisted of business leaders and academics representing a range of European countries and business sectors, by its exceptionally well-balanced approach.

"Most finalists score highly in most areas," Mr McCrea said "but SAM Mouldings achieved a consistently high score across all nine categories."

He said that the company could now add the European Quality Award 2002 to the UK Quality Award 2000 and the Northern Ireland Quality Award 1998 making it the only SME in the British Isles to have managed this achievement.

"Over 90% of European businesses are in the SME category," he said. "With Europe's manufacturing competitiveness continually being questioned, SAM Mouldings has demonstrated that there is a future for small, focused enterprises in deprived regions which are not afraid to think outside the box and compete aggressively and with purpose against much better-placed neighbours."

Jury chairman John Condron, Chief Executive of YELL and Chairman of the European Quality Award Jury said, "This is not about winning an award for its own sake. It is about knocking 25% off your cost of doing business, improving profitability, improving the commitment of the employees, building team spirit and becoming a tougher competitor. SAM Mouldings have proved their ability to meet all these criteria and are to be congratulated on a remarkable achievement."