Month: February 2024

HAMILTON, Bermuda, February 28, 2024 /3BL/ – Family-owned spirits company, Bacardi is once again changing lives in Madrid and Barcelona as it invites 30 young adults to take part in its free bartender training program, Shake Your Future. And mentoring this year’s students will be Mario Villalón, the highly-respected owner of one of Spain’s most sustainable cocktail bars, Angelita Madrid.

The four-week Shake Your Future program, which begins on February 24 in Barcelona and March 4 in Madrid, will give the students the skills necessary for not just a job but a life-long career in bartending. Graduates gain an internationally recognized diploma and with the full support of Bacardi and its network of hospitality partners, access to full time employment opportunities in the industry.

Key to the success of the Shake Your Future initiative in Spain are the close collaborations between Bacardi and the European Bartender School and labor associations, Barcelona Activa and Fundación Altius in Madrid.

Former Shake Your Future graduate Max De Boussiers, who is now a bartender at Cecconi’s, Soho House Barcelona, said: “When I found out I had been selected for Shake Your Future, I yelled with happiness because I had the opportunity to join a program which could lead to amazing opportunities. Shake Your Future changed my life. Thanks to this program I found my first real, stable job and it’s a job that I love. Working with spirits is now my passion.”

“Shake Your Future not only supports the people in our local communities who need it most, it also helps our friends in the bar community to find the skilled bartenders they so desperately need,” said Amanda Almond, Managing Director for Bacardi Spain. “We are committed to supporting both communities in every way we can and Shake Your Future is an important part of that ongoing commitment.”

Mario Villalón, owner of Angelita Madrid, added: “I would not be where I am today without the support and inspiration of others along the way. By supporting Bacardi and its Shake Your Future initiative I can do the same for these students as they set out on their own personal journeys into the world of mixology.”

Bacardi invests in Good Spirited ESG initiatives that set goals for a brighter future for all, focusing on doing the right thing by its consumers, employees, business partners, the communities where it operates, and the environment. Find out more at www.bacardilimited.com/good-spirited.

-ENDS-

Media enquiries: 

Andrew Carney, Communications Director Europe, acarney@bacardi.com   
Jessica Merz, VP Global Corporate Communications, jmerz@bacardi.com

Always drink responsibly.

About Bacardi 

Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held international spirits company, produces, markets, and distributes spirits and wines. The Bacardi Limited portfolio comprises more than 200 brands and labels, including BACARDÍ® rum, PATRÓN® tequila, GREY GOOSE® vodka, DEWAR’S® Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin, MARTINI® vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES® 100% blue agave tequila, and other leading and emerging brands including WILLIAM LAWSON’S® Scotch whisky, ST-GERMAIN® elderflower liqueur and ERISTOFF® vodka. Founded more than 162 years ago in Santiago de Cuba, family-owned Bacardi Limited currently employs approximately 9,000, operates production facilities in 11 countries and territories, and sells its brands in more than 160 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited. Visit www.bacardilimited.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and X.

Problems with wind turbines are rare. But if one does catch fire or blades break and fly off in a storm, it tends to be headline news. This can not only damage the reputations of wind turbine manufacturers and operators, but also adds weight to arguments against wind power. And repairs are costly, too. Product defects are one possible cause, but how can manufacturers resolve quality issues when supply chains are so complex?

To address this challenge, Vestas, a major wind turbine manufacturer, launched a quality initiative powered by SAP solutions and SAP Business Network.

Pillars of the Energy Transition

Faced with the climate crisis, many countries around the globe are investing heavily in zero-emission renewables. China’s 14th Five-Year Plan is driving the market for renewable energy, as are the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and the Green Deal in the European Union. In these parts of the world, wind energy is regarded as the pillar of the energy transition and is the largest source of renewable energy.

But the wind energy sector is highly competitive, experiences rapid innovation, and is prone to massive supply chain issues. Manufacturers must source raw materials, manage global logistics operations, and mitigate the risks of supplier dependency while still keeping pace with demand. They also need to be confident that all the components in their turbines meet rigorous quality standards and deliver performance and reliability. Quality control issues can result in faults, repairs, and – at worst – major failures.

As a market leader in wind turbines, Vestas Wind Systems, headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, launched a large-scale quality initiative. Its 29,000 employees in 88 countries develop wind energy projects worldwide and manufacture, install, and service the turbines for them. The 85,000 turbines Vestas has installed to date generated 173 gigawatts of electricity and over 151 gigawatts under service as of September 2023. Several newly commissioned major projects will see that output increase significantly in the coming years.

“Collaboration with suppliers and partners is of crucial importance to Vestas when it comes to creating a sustainable future for the world by leading the global demand for onshore and offshore wind energy,” Adeola Abegunde, director of Technology Area Lead Digital Procurement and Supply Chain at Vestas, says.

Sourcing Quality with SAP Business Network

Today’s wind turbines are made up of more than 10,000 individual parts. Since the companies that produce these parts are based all over the world, the supply chain is highly complex. To help manage this complexity, Vestas relies on SAP Business Network, the B2B platform used by millions of companies across 190 countries that can connect buyers with contract manufacturers and suppliers.

SAP Business Network enables Vestas to run all its procurement and supply chain collaboration processes online – even beyond company boundaries. Employees use its supply chain functions to collaborate on orders and subcontracting orders. When a supplier confirms an order and sends a shipping notification, staff at Vestas and its contract manufacturers see this information right away. Vestas employees therefore know whether raw materials or the components for an order will arrive at the contract manufacturer on time.

Projects of this scale need to run smoothly and according to plan. This is where the quality collaboration features in SAP Business Network come in. Before a supplier confirms or sends an order, it has to complete predefined quality tests and document them on the network. Vestas employees are then aware in advance of any quality issues further up the supply chain and can take corrective action. Through the network, employees can pass on changes to specifications if, for instance, one particular part had to be replaced sooner than expected and needs to be improved. If quality defects lead to incidents, the network can make these failures transparent to all partners and provide an audit trail. That helps everyone in the supply chain understand what went wrong and solve the problem.

“SAP Business Network allows Vestas to offer its trading partners a platform that makes all sorts of collaboration scenarios transparent from end to end. This means that Vestas is better able to mitigate the impact of disruptions in its global supply chain, making it more robust, future-proof, and sustainable,” Florian Seebauer, senior director of the SAP Business Network unit at SAP, says.

Reducing Supply Chain Friction

Suppliers also benefit from the network’s forecasting capabilities. Vestas can provide them with information from the planning tool so that they can prepare for changes and capacity increases. This helps suppliers plan more accurately and can minimize friction losses in the supply chain.

SAP Business Network also supports Vestas’ sustainability goals since it allows users to select and rate suppliers by sustainability criteria. When compared to electricity generated from fossil fuels, Vestas’ solutions have saved 1.9 billion tons of carbon emissions – equivalent to 88 million cars driven for a year. Vestas has established sustainability performance as a core priority across its entire value chain and introduced pioneering initiatives such as its “Circularity Road Map” for the circular economy. It is no surprise then that Vestas is ranked as one of the world’s most sustainable companies, featured regularly at the top of lists such as Corporate Knights 100.

Vestas and SAP have a long-standing relationship. Vestas has been running SAP as its ERP system since 2007. In 2017, it adopted SAP Ariba solutions for e-procurement and SAP Business Network. Through SAP Business Network, it now has access to a vast pool of potential trading partners. And, because the network is connected to Vestas’ ERP and the complex ordering and collaboration processes running in the background, users don’t have to switch away from the systems they are familiar with. With SAP’s help, Vestas is breezing into a bright future.

February 28, 2024 /3BL/ – It has been almost a year since conflict broke out in Sudan, and the needs have never been greater. Nearly 18 million people, or a third of the population, are acutely food insecure. The conflict has triggered one of the world’s largest displacement crises, with nearly 11 million people displaced both internally and in countries around the world.

Nearly 25 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, including 14 million children. Fuel shortages, rising food prices, and a large-scale cholera outbreak are causing the situation to deteriorate further. Violence prevents humanitarian workers from accessing the hardest-hit communities, and many families are left without access to lifesaving health care and basic necessities.

The crisis in Sudan is one of the world’s most severe, but it is also largely forgotten. The last ten months of conflict have followed years of fighting and instability. The conflict is primarily taking place in the heart of Khartoum, the capital, with a devastating effect on the whole country. It has sparked not only the world’s biggest displacement crisis, but also the largest child displacement crisis, with four million children displaced. Until humanitarian workers can access Sudan’s most vulnerable communities, millions will go hungry. The conflict has destroyed key infrastructure, blocked transport systems, ruined water supply services, devastated health care facilities, and led to economic collapse.

People across the country are going to bed hungry each night. Displacement is causing food insecurity by disrupting harvests and limiting access to vital resources. Around 10% of Sudan’s population is on the brink of famine, while 27% are facing crisis levels of hunger. Disease outbreaks are worsening widespread hunger, as illnesses like cholera lead to diarrhea, weakness, malnutrition, and even death. Cholera levels have surpassed 10,000 cases.

The Conflict in Sudan is a Gender Conflict

In November 2023, UN experts expressed alarm at the escalation of sexual violence during Sudan’s conflict. Women and girls are reportedly being raped and abducted, some of them forcibly married and held for ransom. Several sources have reported seeing women and girls chained in vans inside cars in inhumane conditions.

Action Against Hunger advocates for an end to gender-based violence. It is crucial to respond quickly and urgently to these reports.

Action Against Hunger’s team in Sudan is assisting survivors of gender-based violence through a mobile hotline. The organization’s health experts are setting up women’s centers and community protection networks, both to respond to immediate needs and pave the way for long-term support. Action Against Hunger teams also conduct awareness-raising sessions, train local health workers and community leaders on gender equality, set up school clubs to raise awareness of gender-based violence, and advocate for inclusive and equitable communities.

An Under-Funded and Under-Accessed Humanitarian Response

It is more urgent than ever before for humanitarian workers to have guaranteed safe access Sudan’s impacted communities. The intensification of hostilities is hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, due to large-scale insecurity and movement restrictions. Fuel shortages and rising prices also impact transport costs. The international community faces significant obstacles to respond effectively and requires coordinated efforts to address the challenges and provide lifesaving assistance to Sudan.

Action Against Hunger urges the international community to recognize the scale of the crisis in Sudan and to quickly mobilize the necessary resources to save Sudan needs $2.7 billion dollars in humanitarian assistance—yet the country has only received $96.7 million to date, or 4% of the funding required.

Action Against Hunger’s Work in Sudan

Action Against Hunger reached nearly 500,000 people in Sudan between April and December 2023 with humanitarian programs focused on health, nutrition, livelihoods, water, sanitation, hygiene, and gender protection. Despite persistent conflict-related challenges, Action Against Hunger teams continue to work in 11 locations across the country, including the White Nile, Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and Central Darfur states, all which face escalating levels of food insecurity.

Action Against Hunger has worked in Sudan since 2017, strengthening food insecurity through agricultural interventions, increasing access to safe water, and improving sanitation services and hygiene practices. Health teams also work at 44 centers across the country to treat and prevent malnutrition and diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and measles.

As the already vulnerable health system is further weakened by months of conflict, more and more people in Sudan grow sick, tired, and hungry. Action Against Hunger urges parties to the conflict to ensure that humanitarians have free, unrestricted access to determine the needs of communities, replenish supplies, and deliver lifesaving assistance.

About Action Against Hunger

Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 28 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across 55 countries, our 8,900 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.

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Photos by Guy Calaf, Peter Caton, and Lys Arango