OZ lifting receives Grainger Partners in Performance Award

OZ Lifting Products LLC has received the 2020 Grainger Partners in Performance (PIP) award—for the third time.

The Winona, Minnesota-based manufacturer offers its range of davit cranes, hoists and other lifting equipment through Grainger, including its line of composite products that, at 40% lighter than steel, offer incredible strength-to-weight ratio and are suitable for a myriad of indoor and outdoor applications.

Grainger Inc., meanwhile, with $11+ billion annual sales, is North America’s leading broad line supplier of maintenance, repair and operating products. The PIP awards celebrate suppliers that exceed the performance standards necessary to meet customer expectations and remain competitive in an ever-changing world. Winners are among an elite group of strategic suppliers.

Steve Napieralski, president at OZ Lifting, said: “This is our 13th year doing business with Grainger. It is the largest global company that we distribute through; they have a wide range of customers, such as hospitals, colleges, manufacturing, oil and gas, entertainment, etc. As a small business, we are thrilled to be able to serve the broad scope of their customer base.”

Grainger completes a monthly scorecard that tracks a number of different metrics, such as stock fill rate, drop ship availability, and shipping compliance. Stock fill rate, Napieralski explained, is the percentage of purchase order quantities that are on time for lines expected to ship in a month, while it also monitors a percentage of a supplier’s drop ship purchase orders that ship on time for lines that are expected to ship over the same period.

Grainger, which has over 4,500 suppliers, said of all winners that companies deliver solutions that add value for the businesses it serves and, together, ensure they can run safe, sustainable, and productive operations. A statement added: “As we learned over the past year, partnership is critical to our success. You have faced unprecedented challenges, and we thank you for your flexibility and collaboration as we’ve worked to serve our shared customers.”

Napieralski said: “This is a very difficult award to win even without the challenges of Covid. There are so many variables that are out of your control so last year, like all years, we worked really hard at controlling what we could and tried not to worry about things we had no control over. We didn’t actually change much operationally but, like most companies, we implemented social distancing and mask wearing protocols.”

He added: “Business is pretty good and seems to be getting better each month. All of our product categories are doing well. Since we sell through distribution it can be tough to identify a specific market that is doing better than others. In general, I think most industrial [markets] are doing well with maybe the exception of oil and gas. For sure the fact there are vaccines available now gives people the sense there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”