Ricoh Electronics Named Manufacturer of the Year
Gwinnett Tech Nominated Lawrenceville Business for State Honor
Gov. Sonny Perdue has presented Lawrenceville's Ricoh Electronics with this year's award for Manufacturer of the Year in the medium company category (151 - 749 employees). Ricoh joined Perry's Perdue Farms facility and Rincon's Temcor as the state's top three manufacturers of the year.
Ricoh was nominated for the honor by Gwinnett Technical College, which provides customized business training to Ricoh through the Georgia Quick Start Program.
"We were pleased to nominate for this honor Ricoh Electronics, which has been a dynamic corporate citizen in our region and with whom we have had the opportunity to work with on Quick Start training initiatives," said Sharon Rigsby, president, of Gwinnett Tech.
Quick Start is Georgia's premier economic development program, administered through the
Department of Technical and Adult Education and technical colleges across the state. The Quick Start program is an economic incentive program that provides employee training, at no cost, for qualified companies moving into the state and qualified existing companies that are expanding their work force. The Quick Start program has been in existence since 1967, training more than 485,000 employees for more than 4,800 different companies.
The annual awards ceremony is the highlight of Georgia Manufacturing Appreciation Week, which is co-hosted by the Department of Technical and Adult Education and the Department of Economic Development. This year, more than 1,200 business leaders were in attendance at the ceremony held at the Cobb Galleria April 12.
Frantz J. Pierre, vice president of toner business operations and the plant systems management division, and Terry Herbert, vice president of thermal media group operations, accepted the award.
"We are honored, but more importantly, we are humbled to be the recipient of this prestigious award from our beloved state of Georgia," said Pierre. He added that Quick Start was instrumental in Ricoh's choice of Georgia for a facility. "I hope that Ricoh's partnership with Georgia Quick Start will last for many years to come," he said.
Ricoh is an industry leader in image communication solutions for its customers. Ricoh's plant in Lawrenceville has been manufacturing the highest quality toner and thermal label stock products since beginning operations 17 years ago in 1990. During that time, with the support of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Ricoh has continued to expand its operations and has invested more than $100 million, with plans for continued growth and expansion over the next two years.
Operating with a philosophy of "continuous improvement" or kaizen, the Ricoh Georgia Plant is guided by a vision that emphasizes employee safety, environmental conservation, manufacturing the highest quality products for its customer at a reasonable cost with consistent on-time delivery.
In proclaiming April 9-13 Manufacturing Appreciation Week, Perdue noted the tremendous contribution manufacturing makes to the state's economic well-being. Providing 450,622 jobs at more than 10,000 facilities across Georgia, manufacturing contributes more than $100 billion to the state's economy each year.
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