Cargill Corn Milling Honored with Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award

This marks the second time in four years, and the third time overall, that a Cargill business has captured the Baldrige.

26/11/08 Cargill Corn Milling—one of the world’s leading producers of corn sweeteners and other value-added food, feed and fermentation products -- has received the 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest Presidential honor awarded to organizations for innovation and performance excellence.

The announcement was made this morning in a news release issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This marks the second time in four years, and the third time overall, that a Cargill business has captured the Baldrige. Cargill’s egg processing business – then called Sunny Fresh and now known as Cargill Kitchen Solutions – twice received the award, in 1999 and 2005.

“More than 2,400 employees across nine plants, 11 distribution terminals and various other locations played a role in earning this award,” said Cargill Corn Milling President Alan Willits. “No doubt the Baldrige evaluators found hard working, creative and innovative people everywhere they looked across our business. We are proud, honored and extremely excited to be given this prestigious distinction.”

Congress established the Baldrige award program in 1987 to recognize U.S. companies for achievements in quality and business performance. It is named after the late U.S. commerce secretary. The program is managed by NIST in conjunction with the private sector.

Baldrige applicants are evaluated by an independent board of examiners in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and business results. The evaluation process for Cargill Corn Milling included site visits by examiners to nine locations.

With headquarters in Minneapolis, Cargill Corn Milling consists of seven corn “wet milling” and two corn “dry milling” facilities in the United States. The wet mills -- in which corn kernels are steeped in water and separated into starch, protein, germ and fiber – are located in Blair, Neb.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Dayton, Ohio; Decatur, Ala.; Eddyville, Iowa; Memphis, Tenn.; and Wahpeton, N.D. The dry mills – in which corn kernels are ground into flour – are in Paris, Ill., and Indianapolis.

Cargill Corn Milling’s product lines fall into three broad categories: food, feed and fermentation. Its food lines include MaizeWize whole grain corn meal, corn bran, corn flour and masa flour; regular and high fructose corn syrups, corn oil and sugar. Its animal feed and meal line is anchored by Sweet Bran premium corn gluten feed. Fermentation products include ethanol, dextrose, industrial starch, Regenasure Glucosamine and other acidulants.