Two Manufacturers Among '99 Baldrige Winners

Two manufacturers and two service companies are 1999 winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award announced Nov. 23 by President Clinton and Commerce Secretary William M. Daley. Winner in the manufacturing category was STMicroelectronics Inc.--Region Americas, an integrated-circuit producer headquartered in Carrollton, Tex. Another manufacturing firm, Sunny Fresh Foods, Monticello, Minn., won in the small-business category. The company, an egg-product processor, is the first food manufacturer to receive one of the prized awards, which were established by Congress in 1987 to promote quality awareness. One of the service-category awardees -- Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC, is the only service firm to win the award twice; it also captured the honor in 1992. The Atlanta-based firm manages 36 luxury hotels worldwide. The other winner -- BI, a Minneapolis-based training provider -- also was in the service category. Surprisingly, even though the Baldrige program was expanded this year to include the education and health-care categories, a winner was named in neither.