American Honda Honors Top Suppliers for 2018

Premier Partner Program Recognizes Excellence in Quality, Value and Customer Service

TORRANCE, Calif., Sept. 20, 2018 – American Honda Motor Co., Inc. President & CEO Toshiaki Mikoshiba yesterday presented the company’s annual Premier Partner Awards to 15 suppliers that have demonstrated excellence in quality, value and customer service. A special ceremony was held at the Westdrift Hotel in Manhattan Beach, Calif. to recognize the suppliers’ achievements and contributions to Honda’s business.

The Premier Partner Award winners play an important role in supporting Honda businesses and operations. They range from freight carriers to consulting agencies. Among this year’s recipients are five first-time winners.

“The Premier Partner Award winners exemplify Honda’s philosophy of meeting and exceeding customer expectations,” said Charles Harmon, Senior Manager, Administration Division, American Honda. “They provide Honda with exceptional service each and every day, and we thank them for their continued commitment to our business.”

Standing L to R: Ray Leonard, “K” Line America, Inc.; Damon Joshua, MarketSource; Patrick Santy, George P. Johnson Company; Robert Rodriguez, Jr., RMI International Inc.; Dave Lockard, C.A.R. Transport Inc.; Dave Fleenor, BNSF Railway; Ken Golden, Sinclair Printing Company Seated L to R: Ryan Gaylord, Altura Associates Inc.; Rex Watkins, Interstate Batteries Inc.; Mike Palmer, Crown Packaging; Stacey Crumbley, Targetbase; Mr. Mikoshiba, American Honda Motor Co., Inc.; Anna Crowder, Alpha Omega Solutions, Inc.; Chris Morning, Elanders Americas; Andreas Hect, CCC Information Solutions Inc.; Neal Vanskiver, Johnson Controls Security Solutions, Inc.

The 2018 American Honda Premier Partner Award recipients include:

• Alpha Omega Solutions, Inc. of Brea, Calif. for automotive retail accounting, data retrieval and operational expertise
• Altura Associates, Inc. of Irvine, Calif. for providing consulting and development services for the Honda Environmental Leadership “Green Dealer” Program
• Aquent Cloud of Boston, Mass. for providing project management solutions
• BNSF Railway of Fort Worth, Texas for efficient and reliable railway transport of finished vehicles
• A.R. Transport, Inc. of Burleson, Texas for national transport and delivery of vehicles
• CCC Information Services, Inc. of Chicago for providing an e-commerce solution for Honda’s automobile parts business
• Crown Packaging of Dayton, Ohio for providing solutions that resulted in reduced costs in the packaging of service parts
• Elanders Americas of Davenport, Iowa for producing and distributing the annual American Honda Marine Sales and Service kit
• George P. Johnson of Auburn Hills, Mich. for developing and implementing the new Acura Precision Crafted Performance auto show display
• Interstate Batteries Inc. of Dallas for expanding proactive battery testing within all Honda and Acura dealerships and increasing consumer awareness of Honda batteries via a co-developed national Fall Battery Campaign
• Johnson Controls Security Solutions of Milwaukee, Wis. for providing integrated infrastructure solutions at the American Honda Proving Grounds in California
• “K” Line America Inc. of Richmond, Va. for integrated logistics support via ocean shipping
• RMI International of Paramount, Calif. for providing security services at Honda and Acura events
• Sinclair Printing Company of Los Angeles for printing and delivery of informational materials in Honda and Acura vehicles
• Targetbase of Irving, Texas for management of proprietary customer databases

American Honda also recognized MarketSource with the second annual Impact & Excellence Award, an honor presented to a company that has had a positive impact on the American Honda enterprise. MarketSource has played a key role in Honda’s recall of Takata airbag inflators, providing a team of dedicated specialists tasked with finding and facilitating airbag inflator repairs on high-risk vehicles.

Supporting Small Businesses and Supplier Diversity
The Premier Partner Award recipients were selected from a pool of more than 1,000 eligible companies nominated by American Honda associates. They represent multiple industries and include small businesses and minority-owned operations such as Alpha Omega Solutions, Inc., Aquent Cloud and RMI International.

Honda is committed to the establishment of long-term relationships with all of its suppliers based on mutual benefit and trust. The company works to bring greater diversity to its supply base by assisting potential ethnic minority and women-owned suppliers with workshops and other educational opportunities. The workshops provide a greater understanding of a variety of important issues including strategic alliances, capitalization and empowerment programs.

The Premier Partner award program was established in 1998 to recognize suppliers who embrace American Honda’s philosophy of exceeding customer expectations.

About Honda in North America
Honda established operations in America in 1959 and today employs more than 40,000 associates in the development, manufacturing, and sales of Honda and Acura automobiles, Honda power equipment Honda powersports products, the HondaJet advanced light jet and GE Honda HF120 turbofan engines.

Based on its longstanding commitment to “build products close to the customer,” Honda operates 19 major manufacturing facilities in North America, working with more than 650 suppliers in the region to produce a diverse range of products for customers locally and globally. In 2017 more than 90 percent of the Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. were produced in North America, using domestic and globally sourced parts.

Honda also operates 14 major research and development centers in the U.S. with the capacity to fully design, develop and engineer many of the products Honda produces in North America.