Arkansas Best Included On Fortune’s 2009 List Of World’s Most Admired Companies
(FORT SMITH, Ark., March 3, 2009) – Arkansas Best Corporation (Nasdaq: ABFS) appears on the 2009 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies, published by Fortune magazine. Arkansas Best is the highest ranking less-than-truckload motor carrier among the Most Admired Trucking companies. The full list and related stories appear in the March 16th issue of Fortune, available on newsstands Monday, March 9th.
“Arkansas Best is proud to be recognized with this prestigious honor,” said Arkansas Best President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Davidson. “Our company’s reputation has been earned by the consistent performance of employees throughout North America, who bring value to the supply chains of our customers. So it is particularly rewarding to see their efforts recognized as exceptional. In addition, our customers will be pleased to learn that their supply chain partner has earned the admiration of the world’s best business leaders.”
Fortune’s survey partners at Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, started with some 1,400 companies: the Fortune 1,000—the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue; non-U.S. companies in Fortune’s Global 500 database with revenues of $10 billion or more; and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S. They then sorted the companies by industry and selected the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry.
The survey covers 64 industries: 25 international industries and 39 primarily U.S.-market industries. To create the 64 industry lists, Hay Group asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. This year only the best are listed: A company’s score must rank in the top half of its industry survey.
Arkansas Best Corporation is a transportation holding company. Its largest subsidiary, ABF Freight System, Inc.®, was established in 1923 and is best-in-class for safety, security, technology and freight-handling. InformationWeek, CIO, InfoWorld, and BtoB magazines have cited ABF’s strategic use of information technology as exemplary. ABF® is the only five-time winner of the American Trucking Associations President’s Trophy for Safety, the only four-time winner of the Excellence in Security Award, and the only four-time winner of the Excellence in Claims/Loss Prevention Award. ABF also is the only carrier to earn both the Excellence in Claims/Loss Prevention Award and the Excellence in Security Award in the same year, which ABF accomplished twice.
ABF provides guaranteed service for expedited or time-definite shipments via its TimeKeeper® service. Regional shipments are handled via the carrier’s RPM® Network, providing next-day and second-day shipping. The ABF system stretches throughout North America, with local service centers serving all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Guam and Puerto Rico. Globally, the carrier serves 250 ports in more than 130 countries.
Fortune is a global leader in business journalism with a worldwide circulation of more than one million and a readership of nearly five million, with major franchises including the Fortune 500 and the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. Fortune Live Media extends the brand's mission into live settings, hosting a wide range of annual conferences, including the Fortune Global Forum. Fortune magazine’s online home is CNNMoney.com, the most visited and utilized business destination website.
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