The Gustave A. Larson Co. recently celebrated the 28th anniversary of its supplier evaluation program, Partners in Excellence and Quality (PEAQ).

An awards dinner was held at the Blue Mound Country Club in Wauwatosa on June 29 to honor the top five supplier winners for 2016.

The PEAQ Program was created out of the desire of Karl G. Larson to find a means to honor the partnership between the Gustave A. Larson Co. and its business partners.

The companies honored were:

• Advanced Distributor Products
• Armacell LLC
• Heatcraft Refrigeration Products
• Nu-Calgon
• Mitsubishi Electric US Cooling and Heating.

All received the 2016 Partners in Excellence and Quality (PEAQ) Award.

In addition, Howard Schmidt, former vice president and general manager of Advance Distributor Products, was the recipient of the Karl G. Larson Legacy Award.

Schmidt lead the charge to integrate supplier evaluation into the business processes at ADP. When he joined ADP in 2005, Schmidt task individuals at ADP with specific goals to begin the process of securing recognition as a PEAQ Award winner, which had been done in 2000 and 2001. His goal was met for the first time in 2007 and ADP has been in the Top Five every year since.

This award is in recognition of his commitment to the partnership which exists between the distributor and the supplier.

The winners of the PEAQ Award are chosen through an evaluation of data collected throughout the year considering various measurements of the quality of partnering in business.  Factors considered in the supplier evaluation process include product quality, profitability, marketing support, sales support, electronic commerce capabilities, on-time deliveries, lead-time performance, warranty policy, credit terms, business policies and procedures.

“The primary goal of the PEAQ Program is to help us find ways to work more closely with our supplier partners for the mutual benefit of our companies,” said Herb Daugherty, director of inventory management, who administers Larson’s PEAQ Program. “The PEAQ Program is reviewed regularly to make sure the areas which are being evaluated are still relevant and important to the mutual success of our business partners, as well as, the Gustave A. Larson Co.”