Midway USA wins prestigious Baldrige Award
Midway USA of Columbia was one of five companies to receive the 2009 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Midway USA is a family-owned, catalog/Internet-based retail merchant that makes shooting, reloading, gunsmithing and hunting products. The company is located southeast of the Interstate 70 Midway exit and employs about 243 full-time and 100 part-time workers.
President Barack Obama and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the five winners in a news release that called the award “the nation’s highest presidential honor for innovation and performance excellence.”
“They inspire other organizations to be more accessible, more efficient, more customer-focused and more financially sound,” Locke said. “They have raised the bar for innovation and organizational excellence and, in the process, help to improve our economy and quality of life.”
The recipients were selected from a field of 70 applicants that were evaluated by an independent board of examiners in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results. The evaluation process for each of the recipients included about 1,000 hours of review and an on-site visit by a team of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the applications.
The Baldrige Award recipients are expected to accept the awards in Washington, D.C., next year.
Midway USA, led by CEO Larry Potterfield, won in the small business category and was one of three Missouri companies that received the award. The other two recipients were Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies in Kansas City and Heartland Health in St. Joseph.
Retail customers represent 90 percent of Midway USA’s total business, with dealers and international customers making up the remaining 10 percent. The company distributes more than 95,000 different products from more than 700 different vendors.
Midway USA’s overall customer satisfaction rating is 93 percent, up from 91 percent in 2007 and 2008, the press release stated. The customer retention is at an all-time high of 98 percent.
Results for indicators of workforce engagement and satisfaction at Midway USA are comparable with national benchmark performance ratings of 77 percent and 80 percent. The annual employee survey score has improved from about 60 percent favorable in 2002 to 82 percent in 2008. Net income as a percentage of sales grew from 2.5 percent in 2003 to nearly 10 percent in 2008.