Carl Buddig and Company was honored with the prestigious Dean’s Award at the 24^th Annual Illinois Family Business of the Year Awards for their commitment to family business, supply chain management, social responsibility and emerging markets. The award and ceremony are presented by The Family Business Center at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business. Presented in six categories, the annual awards recognize companies with exceptional commitment to family and family business. Those recognized have demonstrated positive family/business linkage, multigenerational family business involvement, contributions to industry and community, and innovative business practices and strategies.

Carl Buddig began distributing meats throughout Chicago in 1943. He and his family worked hard to earn the trust of meat packers and retailers, treating each with same honesty and respect they valued in their own family. The idea of family was at the heart of everything Carl did, including relationships with employees and customers. With Carl Buddig & Company celebrating 75 years of family ownership, the fourth generation of Buddigs have now entered the business. Today the company has grown to almost 2000 employees. Or, as the current management team sees it, 2000 families who are all part of the Buddig family.

“We consider our employees, sales associates, customers and the community to be an extension of our Buddig family,” said Bob Buddig, 3^rd Generation CEO. “We are honored to receive an award that recognizes our commitment to family, and we will continue to pass down the values that have served us well as a family and a business for generations to come.”

Carl Buddig and Company collaborates to bring high quality lunchmeat, sausage, and ready to eat meals to consumers nationally through various channels from grocery to food service and convenience stores. In addition to the quality sliced lunch meats American families loved for generations, the Buddig family of products has expanded over the years with the acquisition of the Old Wisconsin Sausage Company in 1981. The recent acquisition of CBQ also brings ready to eat meats to the table and the company will launch Kingsford brand BBQ Ribs and entrees this December. Carl Buddig & company continues to expand, developing new product innovations to meet changing consumer needs in the US and through export.

Nourishing the extended Buddig family also includes giving back to the company’s community and the neighborhoods where Buddig’s large workforce lives—most within 30 minutes of their plant. In addition to individual philanthropy from the family to help support the community, Carl Buddig is a high touch organization with employees at all levels contributing to charitable activities year-round through the Cancer Walk, local food drives and volunteer days. Most recently, Carl Buddig & Company donated 250,000 pounds of meat to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and coordinated multiple volunteer days on site to package the meat for distribution.

“Family businesses like Carl Buddig and Company that achieve tremendous success and growth while still remaining true to the essence of family business are the quiet heroes of our economy and our communities,” said Anne Smart, director of the Loyola Family Business Center. "We recognize Buddig's efforts and congratulate them for 75 years of a job well done.”

Source: Carl Buddig & Co.