Holcim’s Annual Awards returned in style recently, celebrating the outstanding achievements of individuals and teams from across Australia and New Zealand.
Attended by leaders from across the business, the gala event was the first in three years. Given across six categories including Growth, Products and Solutions, Sustainability, Performance, Safety and the coveted One Holcim Spirit, the awards highlighted the calibre of talent and passion in our business and shone a spotlight on the contribution that our teams make every day to Holcim's growth and success.
A special congratulations to this year’s Holcim ANZ Annual Award recipients.
The Award for Growth in Financial Results or Workforce Output - Accelerating Growth
L-R: Phil Wallace CFO, Matt Shinners GM VIC Concrete, Umit Baykur Area Manager Humes VIC, Paul Hillyer GM VIC Aggregates and George Agriogiannis CEO
Victorian Integrated Business Performance: Under the One Holcim leadership of Paul Hillyer, Umit Baykur and Matthew Shinners, the Victorian business achieved strong Safety & EBIT performances across Concrete and Aggregates alongside an impressive Humes turnaround in 2022 over the prior year culminating in record overall results.
The Award for Commercial (Customer Outcomes) - Accelerating Growth
L-R: Phil Wallace CFO, Sam Russell GM WA Aggregates and George Agriogiannis, CEO
Quarantine Aggregates Chevron Gorgon Project: Holcim's team demonstrated agility in leveraging its experience in supplying materials to Barrow Island, and relationship with Ertech to provide a solution to satisfy all parties. This included establishing a quarantine facility and container loading capability at its Turner River Quarry.
The Award for Products - Expanding Products & Solutions
L-R: Guido Dewilde EGM Humes, Dave Darlow Lab Manager and George Agriogiannis CEO.
Dave Darlow: Dave has worked to ensure that Holcim will have an efficient means to independently certify different blends through an Environmental Product Declaration. This work will enable us to bring EcoPlanet cement to market in 2023, with an embodied carbon below 500 kg per tonne - the best in the market in New Zealand.
The Award for Solutions - Expanding Products & Solutions
L-R: Greg Price EGM Concrete, Andrew O'Sullivan Estimating and Tendering Manager, Francis Chou Project Manager and George Agriogiannis CEO
Humes Tamworth Inland Rail - Francis Chou: In late 2019 the team secured the largest ever order in Humes’ history to produce over 63,000 tonnes of precast components for the Inland Rail project. The majority of the lucrative project was delivered through the Tamworth site by Francis Chou and his team who overcame COVID, import delays on moulds, labour shortages, tight quality specifications and a very demanding customer.
The Award for Innovation - Leading Innovation & Sustainability
L-R: Brad Tallon EGM IT, Technical and Engineering, Gino Antonello Regional Operations Manager Humes and George Agriogiannis CEO
Sleepers Fast Clip Applicator Project: The fast clip applicator was created to replace the antiquated hand lever system, which required strenuous manual handling and a lengthy duration on the production line when fitting post sleeper components. While the efficiency gains have been tremendous, it is the reduction in manual handling and the elimination of strenuous physical exertion that’s impressive.
The Award for Sustainability - Leading Innovation & Sustainability
L-R: Brad Tallon EGM IT, Technical and Engineering, Frank Knippers Manager Technical and George Agriogiannis CEO
ECOPact and ECOPact Zero: Evan Smith, Frank Knippers, Paul Rocker, Dylan Viviers and Josh Marks have been integral to making ECOPact Australia’s market-leading low carbon concrete. In no time, ECOPact has become the most specified low carbon concrete in Australia, achieving more than 150 project specifications in 2022 and selling 150km³ - a great result for a brand that's only two years old.
The Award for Superior Performance - Delivering Superior Performance
L-R: Guido Dewilde EGM Humes, Sean Goonan CFO Humes, Priyan Siva Head of Tax and Treasury and George Agriogiannis CEO
Cash Working Group led by Sean Goonan: For the past 4 years the team has delivered our cash targets. In 2022, the team changed the way that they ran the Cash Working Group to more of a risk focus. Engaging more broadly across the business with the GMs and the Account teams, ensuring they gave increased line of sight of targets and provided greater direction to the teams on focus accounts and areas.
The Award for Physical Safety, Mental Health, Wellbeing or Volunteering - We Keep Each Other Safe
L-R: Helen Jones EGM People, Culture and Communications, Kerry Smith Safety Manager Aggregates and George Agriogiannis CEO
Kerry Smith: Over many years, Kerry has proactively championed and implemented initiatives to support the physical and mental health of our people. Piloting the monthly health theme program in Victorian Aggregates, Kerry has driven the program’s success, which has now been adopted by the Aggregates business nationally.
The Award for Diversity and Inclusion - We Keep Each Other Safe
L-R: Helen Jones EGM People, Culture and Communications, Jen McSweeney Quality Systems Managers and George Agriogiannis CEO
Jennifer McSweeney: For the past two years Jen has been a member of the Holcim D&I Committee and is a leader of the Growth at Holcim Pillar. She has been instrumental in organising the "Women in Superannuation" webinar sessions and Senior Leader Diversity & Inclusion virtual training sessions, and responsible for researching and recommending potential partnerships such as Diversity Australia. This true D&I champion is also active in her local community and volunteers at the Kensington Repair Hub in Melbourne.
The Award for Values - The Holcim Spirit
L-R: Jess Blomfield General Counsel & Company Secretary, David Manning Pit Manager and George Agriogiannis CEO
David Manning: Through the course of the year, David has performed his role of Pit Manager at Lynwood Quarry, as well as providing strong support to our new Lynwood Quarry Manager, Wayne Beattie. In parallel, David supported and mentored a young management and supervisory team. Towards the end of the year, David also took on the position of Acting Quarry Manager at Cooma Road, once he had received his Tier One Quarry Managers ticket. David continues to demonstrate strong leadership behaviour whilst also pushing for positive change at Cooma Road Quarry in a short period of time.
The Award for Community - The Holcim Spirit
L-R: Scott Buchanan EGM Aggregates, Paul Hillyer GM VIC Aggregates and George Agriogiannis CEO
Werribee River Association initiative: Led by Graeme Jones, Werribee Quarry has developed a strong relationship with the Werribee River Association that has been in place for over 10 years. Each year employees and contractors from Holcim participate in cleaning up the river and tree planting days. To date, more than 22,000 trees have been planted in the local community, and many tonnes of rubbish removed from the river.
The Award for Collaboration - The Holcim Spirit
L-R: Scott Buchanan EGM Aggregates, Sam Russell GM WA Aggregates, Rebecca Reeves GM WA Concrete, Ben Thornton Area Manager WA Humes, Nigel Chamberlain Manager Mobile Precast and Major Projects and George Agriogiannis CEO
MetroNet: With 72 kilometres of new passenger rail and 23 new stations, MetroNet is the single largest investment in public transport Perth has seen. Recognising that this was a State changing project, the 3 business units decided to actively collaborate and cooperate as One Holcim back from even before the first package of work was released. Ultimately, Holcim as one company, would win the lion's share of the work on this iconic project. And the work has paid off. In 2022, Holcim secured more than $100 million of new work on the MetroNet project in WA, spanning Aggregates, Concrete and Humes.
