A local beer distributor will receive a national award from Anheuser-Busch during a ceremony Saturday for its outstanding performance for 2018.
Texarkana's Eagle Distributing, who handles Anheuser-Busch products, will receive the Ambassadors of Excellence National Champion distinction, Gold Level, with a perfect score of 1,000 after a year-long competition that involved tracking performance and numbers among several criteria.
"This has been quite an honor," said Tim O'Neal, owner and managing partner of Eagle Distributing. "The achievement was a team effort. Our people, our team, they are dedicated and committed. And the way we see it, no one here is more important than the other. Regardless of position in the organization, everyone is needed to pull something like this off."
According to O'Neal, the process starts with analyzing each distributor for eligibility to participate in the contest.
"Out of the more than 500 wholesalers, each has to hit a certain point level on the scale to be even eligible to participate in the competition. At that point, only 40 percent participate. At that point, the competition begins," he said.
Over a year, each wholesaler tracks points on a monthly basis in a range of categories, dealing not only with sales, but other groups such as market share and management of staff. At the end of the year, corporate auditors go through the records of each participant with a fine-toothed comb. Once they have completed that process, first-, second- and third-place winners are selected over eight regions. And out of all the regional first-place winners, Anheuser-Busch corporate officials select their Ambassador of Excellence National Champion.
"It takes lots of work and focus to perform at that level," O'Neal said. "Some distributors are still working on achieving Gold for the first time. We've managed to do it seven times."
Once the winning groove is found, the playbook is established.
"We know what to do now to make Gold," O'Neal said. "We kind of have that down. But this year, we managed a perfect score of 1,000 points. We've never done that before and it only has been done two times before in the entire history of the program."
Among the perks that come with the recognition are the Super Bowl-like accoutrements of the competition.
"We all get rings that signify the accomplishment, which happens this Saturday," O'Neal said. "Everyone who works here will get one. It has been quite an honor. And the thing is, us performing at this level, this consistently, we get to share what we know with others in the organization. Even though Texarkana is a relatively small place, Anheuser-Busch knows who we are. They know us here in Region 5. They have an eye on Texarkana."
Region 5 also includes Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
The ring ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Texarkana, Texas, Convention Center, 4610 Cowhorn Creek.