Musgrave takes top prize at National Procurement Awards

More than 200 of Ireland’s top-flight procurement experts came together in November to celebrate the best in their business at the National Procurement Awards.

The awards came hot on the heels of an Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report in August that applauded the Government’s central procurement. The OECD said Ireland’s example demonstrated not just cost savings and improved accountability but buying green and promoting social responsibility throughout supply chains.

The awards were a further pat on the back for this vital sector, with 17 awards being presented at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, by host, comedian and podcaster Jarlath Regan.

It was a big night for family-run food retail, wholesale and food service company Musgrave. It not only won the best supplier relationship management award but was also given the overall excellence in procurement gong. And to top the night, Musgrave’s chief supply chain officer Luke Hanlon was given the procurement leader award 2023.

Hanlon said: “I think it’s great to take the opportunity to be at the National Procurement Awards with your team, to step up for the business, celebrate success, and be together outside of the work environment. The future is bright for Ireland’s procurement; the economy is in a good place, a lot of organisations have big investment plans and that requires a very strong procurement strategy to go along with it.”

Procurement is not all about big business. University College Cork won the best education procurement project of the year. David McKevitt, lecturer, author and coach, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to win the awards and all of our students, current and past, are delighted. It’s a great privilege, frankly, to be judged against our peers and both public and private sectors, so we are absolutely delighted. I would highly recommend the awards to all my colleagues and ex-students.”

The prize for the best supply chain team of the year went to Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals. Lynda Cahalane, material excellence lead, said the experience had fired her up to enter next year’s awards. “We are absolutely honoured, thrilled and delighted to receive this award on behalf of Pfizer. This is a great recognition of the team and all the hard work that has been done for the past 12 months. I’d like to say a huge thank you to everybody involved.”

Primark scooped best international procurement project of the year for its 16-country shop cleaning initiative called input specification – rethinking cleaning in Primark.

Lexy Staffurth, procurement business partner for retail operations, said she would recommend the awards to everyone in the sector. “It’s really a good evening, and great to see procurement people in the room together. All the awards are a success for everybody.”

On winning, Staffurth added: “It’s a hugely complex project across the 16 countries that we operate in, so we were really proud to win this award to recognise all the hard work.”

Gary Mander, supply chain and operations manager at EY, was the judging coordinator. He described the judging process as providing “a unique insight into the solutions being created to address the business challenges that present themselves on a day-to-day basis”.

He said: “In many respects, the procurement teams are the unsung heroes within organisations, so it was a privilege to get to celebrate their achievements with them on the night.”

Mander added: “The business landscape is undoubtedly changing, and procurement departments are being leveraged more and more to provide value outside of the traditional sourcing activities. It was really encouraging to see such a focus on sustainability within the submissions, and there is little doubt that the profession will continue to thrive in the years ahead. It is such an exciting time to be operating within the procurement space.”

Speaking at the awards, Kevin O’Driscoll, director partnership programmes at Business river said: “Events like this are made possible through the support of sponsors. We are thankful to our 2023 sponsors and professional partners, which include Verizon. Their investment in the awards underlines their commitment and support of this key business area.”

The awards were judged by a distinguished panel of procurement experts and drawn from all areas of the sector.

Full list of judges

Gary Mander (judging co-ordinator), supply chain and operations manager, EY
Robert Babington, strategic sourcing biologics DP lead, Bristol Myers Squibb
Heloisa De Carli, procurement manager, St Patrick’s University Hospital
Paul Farrelly, chartered quantity surveyor, Transport Infrastructure Ireland
Paul Higgins, global procurement manager, PepsiCo
Fran Kehoe, associate director, KPMG
Dominic Kelly, global manager (head), data centre services procurement and supplier management at Amazon Web Services
Barry McGoldrick, vice-president and chief procurement officer, Molex LLC
Michael O’Callaghan, director, IPICS The Supply Chain Management Institute