STAFF at the Ramsbottom depot of TNT UK are celebrating a major award.

The company has won the Business-to-Business category in the 1996 Management Today Unisys Excellence Awards.

An adjudication panel visited a shortlist of 21 companies and assessed them against four criteria.

They were: understanding customers, operational excellence, success in engaging "hearts and minds" of the employees, and leadership, vision and values.

Key business successes in TNT's winning entry included:

Reduction of telephone answering time to three rings;

"Home grown timber" policy of promoting from within - a system for high motivation of staff which leads to a thorough knowledge of the business;

Constant launching of new customer care initiatives.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.