P&G Sets Supplier Diversity Goal

The Procter & Gamble Company today announced its commitment to spend $1.5 billion with minority and women suppliers annually by 2005, making P&G eligible to join the supplier diversity industry’s Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR). The BDR is a new initiative sponsored by Minority Business News U.S.A. in conjunction with Women’s Enterprise Magazine, which includes an elite group of corporations that spend more than $1 billion annually with minority- and women-owned businesses.

“The supplier diversity spending goal P&G has set continues to underscore our commitment to economic inclusion of minority businesses as part of our business growth strategy,” said Gary Simpson, vice president-global baby care, product supply, P&G. “While we spend nearly $1 billion with minority and women suppliers today, we will steadily grow that number by 15% each year until 2005.”

P&G made the announcement today during the annual conference of the National Minority Supplier Development Council in Atlanta (Oct. 28-31). Currently, minority- or women-owned business enterprises play key roles in the testing, production or product packaging process of many of P&G’s more than 250 consumer brand products, including, but not limited to: Tide, Pringles, Bounty, Charmin, Folgers, Crest, Pampers, Tampax, Dryel, Always, Metamucil, Gain and Cheer.

“With minority populations of today quickly becoming the majority of the population tomorrow, we see a competitive advantage in increasing our business with entities that reflect our country’s diverse consumers,” said Daryl Hodnett, group manager, P&G Supplier Diversity Development. “By doing business with diverse suppliers we also gain key insights into consumer behavior and preferences as a value-add to the quality services our suppliers are already providing.”

According to the latest data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of African-American-owned businesses increased 22% to more than 800,000, and Latino-owned businesses increased 30% to more than 1.2 million. P&G’s Supplier Diversity network of minority and women-owned business enterprises is made up of 1,250 of businesses, with which P&G will spend 11% of its procurement budget in 2005.

“By engaging minority suppliers in our business processes, P&G is enriching and supporting the communities that are supporting us by purchasing our brands every day,” said Hodnett. “Supplier diversity is an important plank in P&G’s efforts to build our brands’ business with the country’s diverse consumer base, helping P&G and America’s minority communities grow and prosper.”