MidwayUSA Receives the 2009 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Columbia, MO -

MidwayUSA, a catalog and Internet retailer offering Just About Everything® for Shooting, Reloading, Gunsmithing and Hunting, was in Washington D.C. last week to receive the 2009 Baldrige Award from Vice President Joseph Biden and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Originally announced in December 2009, MidwayUSA was one of five organizations to receive the 2009 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest Presidential honor for innovation and performance excellence. "The road to greatness in America has been, and always will be, traveled by those who embrace change and work hard every day to be the best; the organizations we honor today with the Baldrige National Quality Award exemplify that spirit," President Obama said of 2009’s recipients.

"It was an honor for thirty-four MidwayUSA employees to travel from Columbia, MO to Washington D.C. to receive this award from Vice President Biden," said Larry Potterfield, Founder and CEO of MidwayUSA. "Basic Training in the Air Force, back in 1971, was my formal introduction to the importance of establishing standards and processes and MidwayUSA has always focused on improving the way we serve our Customers. The Baldrige National Quality Award helps acknowledge we're on the right track for serving our Customers."

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is given by the President of the United States to businesses—manufacturing and service, small and large—and to education, health care and nonprofit organizations that apply and are judged to be outstanding in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results. The Baldrige Program’s mission is to improve the competitiveness and performance of U.S. organizations.

Named after former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, Congress established the award program in 1987 to recognize U.S. organizations for their achievements in quality and performance and to raise awareness about the importance of quality and performance excellence as a competitive edge. Three awards may be given annually in each of these categories: manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care and nonprofit. For 2009, MidwayUSA was one of five organizations to receive the award out of a field of 70 applicants, and the only organization to receive the award in the small business category. The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) manages the Baldrige National Quality Program in close cooperation with the private sector.

"Adopting the Baldrige Criteria has allowed us to develop and improve our processes for serving our Customers," said Matt Fleming, President of MidwayUSA. "Baldrige, in combination with other Modern Management Practices, has created a lifestyle at MidwayUSA where we continually improve our business for the benefit of our Customers. Our Vision is 'To be the best-run business in America' and our adoption of the Criteria for Performance Excellence from the Baldrige National Quality Program has certainly driven us toward accomplishing our Vision."

For more information about MidwayUSA, please visit https://www.midwayusa.com/.

For more information about NIST or the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, please visit www.nist.gov/baldrige.