Supplier Diversity Development

For decades, Altria Group and its companies have worked to strengthen communities by reaching out to a diverse base of suppliers including minority-owned and women-owned businesses. Our senior management emphasizes this commitment, which is communicated throughout our family of companies. As a result, supplier diversity is an integral part of how we conduct our business.

Working with Minority-owned and Women-owned Business Enterprises

We believe in helping to improve the lives of people in our communities. Our supplier diversity development programs help do so by creating more businesses, more entrepreneurship, more business training and more employment.

By tapping into the energy and ingenuity of hundreds of minority-owned and women-owned enterprises, we receive products and services that make our own operations more efficient and profitable.

Minority-owned and women-owned businesses provide a wide range of essential services and commodities to Altria and its companies including logistics, warehousing, staffing, marketing services, electrical services and office supplies.

Our Supplier Diversity Development (SDD) Process

A cross-functional team of specialists called "champions" represent various functional areas in support of our process.

The team coordinates with the director of supplier diversity and develops annual plans for their functions to work with minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

Our procurement professionals, in conjunction with our SDD champions, are accountable for meeting annual utilization targets with diverse suppliers and for identifying developmental opportunities.

In addition to being actively involved in purchasing goods and services from diverse suppliers, Altria Group supports organizations that represent minority and women business owners. We have long supported the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and its affiliate councils around the nation. We also champion organizations of women business owners such as the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Both NMSDC and WBENC seek to increase procurement and business opportunities for minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

If you are a minority-owned or women-owned business and are interested in working with us, we invite you to learn more about the registration and certification process.

2008 Results

• In 2008, spending with minority and women-owned businesses accounted for 11% of total purchases by Altria and its companies ─ well above the national average according to benchmarking done with NMSDC member companies in the consumer goods industry. 
• Altria receives regular third-party recognition for its supplier diversity development efforts, including the 2008 Corporation of the Year award from the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council ─ the third consecutive year an Altria company has been so honored.
• Altria finished among the top 10 companies in the competition for Corporation of the Year from the NMSDC.

Executive Education

Altria Group's commitment to the use of minority and women suppliers extends beyond contracting. It's important that we have a strong leadership base of diverse suppliers. To that end, Altria and its companies have sponsored executives from qualifying minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises to attend renowned executive educational programs including Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth College, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Executive Education Program at the University of Wisconsin.

In 2009, Altria Group joined with other Richmond-based companies to support an innovative leadership development program designed exclusively for chief executive officers of certified minority businesses in Virginia. The program was designed by the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business with input from the VMSDC and the founding corporations. Twenty executives will be invited to participate in the program beginning in June 2009. A tailored curriculum will be developed by nationally recognized faculty of the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business in conjunction with the University's Executive Education division.

Contact Information

Altria Group
Supplier Diversity Development Process
P.O. Box 85088
Richmond, VA 23285

Phone: 1-888-685-7337

Contact us via e-mail

Related Information

Other Web Resources:

• National Minority Supplier Development Council
• U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce
• Women's Business Enterprise National Council