Already we are two months into 2023 and we are buckling in for another huge year.
The importance of connection
Our hearts go out to communities affected by the recent storm events. It has not been easy seeing or hearing the massive impact this has had on lives. If you are a customer who needs support, please reach out ASAP. We are taking a very flexible approach with customers who need support over the coming recovery period. Having traded a business through receivership, which felt like the end of the world at the time – there’s always hope. I’m proud of the way the team has responded in their own ways with family or friends affected.
Trend – Sustainability
It seems timely to spend much of this month talking about sustainability. Rhino has had good underlying sustainability performance – we just haven’t talked about it much as a lot of our activity is under the radar. In the past couple of years, our two main focuses have been:
- Recycling on-site. We have made massive progress with dedicated recycling streams for our own alloy / aluminium, cardboard, glass, metal, paper, plastic (manufacturing and other) and stainless steel. Waste. We are still working on the dream of removing our skip bin and becoming “zero waste” – we would welcome any suggestions on achieving this…particularly solutions for recycling wood.
- Recycling of products. We do rely heavily on customers to “Do the Right Thing” when Rhino products have reached the end of their life. The biggest feedback on impact we could make came from our market research. This feedback lead to Rhino developing the world first circular mudguard product. The next logical step for this is setting up local collection points in each area – watch this space for an imminent announcement.
The next will be carbon emissions…
We are pleased with our progress but this will always be a work in progress as we seek continuous improvement. Please check out our efforts on our Sustainability page and we welcome any suggestions – please connect directly with me.
Story of the month – Mudflaps
Mudflaps have dominated our focus for February as we have been under the pump to meet demand. We soft-launched this product at the back-end of 2022 with Standard Plastic. The phases:
- Standard plastic with a full size range for duals and custom sizes for smart customers who want to focus on value-added installation without re-manufacturing.
- Premium Flexible Plastic – is now being rolled out our for those uses that require flexibility and the highest performance.
- Branding is underway for customers who have been patiently on the waitlist.
- Additional sizing is underway.
Information on the website is always changing, so we will continue to update you as the Rhino mudflaps product offering evolves and expands. Mudflaps has been a continuous request from customers since I’ve been at Rhino and makes logical sense as we utilise our decades of experience about all things around a wheel combined with our strong Research and Development focus and manufacturing expertise.
Best wishes and reach out…
I hope 2023 has started as planned for you – please reach out if you’d like to connect. I’ve enjoyed catching up and sharing a few war stories that have been challenging in the past couple of years.
Regards
Will – GM @ Rhino.