Quality Chekd Names Hiland Dairy Foods Company of Little Rock, Arkansas, 2020 Winner of Prestigious Irving B. Weber Award

CHICAGO, IL / AGILITYPR.NEWS / October 22, 2020 / The Hiland Dairy plant earned high honors, including the Weber Award, the Production Excellence Award for best milk processing, and the orange juice competition.

Quality Chekd Dairies, Inc., a member-owned organization providing dairy processors with business improvement and production quality services, is pleased to announce this year’s recipient of the Irving B. Weber Distinguished Award for Quality Excellence is Hiland Dairy Foods Company of Little Rock, Arkansas. Recognized as the highest honor for overall quality throughout the Quality Chekd organization, the recognition distinguishes Hiland Dairy’s commitment to quality excellence in the categories of leadership, culture, production, sustainability, and business ethics. The award was presented during a Virtual Awards Celebration on Oct. 15, 2020.

The Little Rock operation is the oldest continuously operating dairy west of the Mississippi and is managed by the legacy Coleman Dairy. Hiland Dairy was named the award winner after a thorough scoring process that included more than 40 other Quality Chekd member operations. The plant is not new to the Irving B. Weber Award, winning as recently as 2018. They demonstrated excellence in several areas to earn the 2020 award, including completing a significant refrigeration upgrade that enables them to cool raw milk to 33 degrees, practicing stricter environmental practices, cross-training employees and management, and creating a culture change in how they operate the plant. As a result of their continuous improvement efforts, their current pass rate for fluid milk is 88% at 30 days of code and their overall quality score is an impressive 99.3%.

“Our success can be contributed to our 250 employees,” said Mike Flagg, general manager of Hiland Dairy Little Rock. “Our mantra, ‘We Keep Score,’ means each employee is vested in the performance of the business and desire to continually improve.”

Hiland Dairy’s Little Rock operation was also awarded the Production Excellence Award for the best milk processing plant among all Quality Chekd member organizations and won the orange juice competition for the second straight year.

The three-day QCS Leadership Conference is an annual event hosted by Quality Chekd Dairies and QCS Purchasing. The conference provides a forum where food and beverage manufacturers and suppliers from throughout the United States and South America learn new information, ideas, and strategies to remain competitive in the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry.

This year’s conference theme focused on connection, communication, and collaboration, addressing the challenges the member-owners have in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and providing the QCS Purchasing organization’s member-owners and supply partners a virtual platform to collaboratively address these complexities.