Clarins has been named by Gebr. Heinemann as the Supplier of the Year for 2009. Gunnar Heinemann presented the cup to Christian Courtin-Clarins, owner of the Clarins Group and son of the Group’s founder, who personally attended the award celebrations on the German North Sea Island of Sylt and was accompanied there by members of his travel retail team.

“It is a great honour for our company to be nominated Supplier of the Year,” said Christian Courtin-Clarins. “Gebr. Heinemann themselves have earned an excellent reputation for service quality. To receive this award from them in recognition of our own performance in the field is a privilege. The travel retail market is very important for our global brand.”

Gunnar Heinemann made particular mention of the outstanding way in which the leading French cosmetics group has adapted to the requirements of the travel retail market. “Clarins has shown itself to be extremely flexible when it comes to meeting the needs of the travel retail market. Many elements of the company’s product range and presentation have been specially developed with this market in mind. The partnership with Clarins that we entered into in 1984 has always been characterised by a high level of trust and outstanding operational cooperation.”

Clarins was specifically singled out for its strong focus on service, superlative supply chain management and cooperation in day-to-day business operations. The company was also praised for its innovative and creative ideas in devising campaigns, presentations and promotions tailor-made for the Travel Value & Duty Free shops of Gebr. Heinemann.

Gebr. Heinemann has now conferred the Supplier of the Year award on three separate occasions. Inken Menck, Gebr. Heinemann’s head of purchasing for perfumes and cosmetics, outlined the background to the award, and its significance: “We have always aimed to consolidate and improve the quality of our working relationships with the industry. To achieve that, it is essential that our suppliers clearly understand what we expect of them. That was the thought behind the Supplier of the Year award, which we introduced three years ago. Today, we can say we are delighted at how positively our suppliers responded to the catalogue of objective criteria that we compiled especially for the award, and how strong they are working to comply with it.”

For Gebr. Heinemann, the criteria catalogue – which is distributed to all suppliers annually and which lists requirements in the areas of purchasing, supply chain and marketing – provides an objective tool for evaluating the quality of cooperation with the industry. All criteria are rated according to the conventional school grades system.