The Rapid Group has celebrated another successful year of growth at the co-operative’s annual conference held in Fiji.
Launched with a traditional kava opening ceremony, the conference saw RapidClean CEO, Wayne Hill, sharing the group’s key achievements with more than 150 Australian and New Zealand members and suppliers.
The 2022/23 financial year had a number of highlights for the Rapid Group, which continues to build on its five-year growth plan launched at last year’s conference in Sydney.
This year, the group reported a 13 per cent increase in preferred supplier purchases, as well as “excellent” growth across many of its major product groups.
Paper recorded growth of 20 per cent in Australia and 13 per cent in NZ; chemicals increased 18 per cent in both Australia and NZ; cleaning accessories grew 16 per cent in Australia and 12 per cent in NZ; while packaging was up 12 per cent in Australia and 14 per cent in NZ. Machinery also rose 5 per cent in Australia and NZ.
Key account sales grew 33 per cent, with Hill attributing the growth to major accounts recently secured in Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales.
In 2022/23, the group also expanded its footprint, welcoming RapidClean Northland.
“A major strength of Rapid is our membership and the capacity to service across Australia,” Hill said of Rapid’s growing member network.
The new sites now take the total number of RapidClean members to more than 70 across Australia and New Zealand, with Hill noting that the group will “continue to review opportunities to fill geographic gaps”.
The Rapid Group also welcomed three new suppliers: APOLLO, CleanLIFE, and IPC. The organisation also retained its Quality Assured status and expanded its head office team, with new appointments in marketing, procurement, and key account support.
Members and suppliers celebrated
The RapidClean conference concluded with its annual gala awards dinner, where Member of the Year and Supplier of the Year were both named for Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand Members of the Year was awarded to Bay Direct Diverse Distributors.
Filta NZ was awarded Supplier of the Year.
Sydney-based Abcoe Distributors won the highly coveted Member of the Year award. Rodney Macnamara, Managing Director of Abcoe Distributors, thanked his team and the Rapid Group for their ongoing support.
Supplier of the Year was awarded to Huhtamaki – Tailored Packaging, while Edgar Edmondson (Edco) was named Runner Up.
The generosity of RapidClean members and suppliers was also on show once again when $18,500 was raised for the Cancer Council following an auction at the gala dinner and the Sharon Lees Memorial Afternoon Tea.
Sponsors of the RapidClean conference included Diversey, Solaris Paper/Cottonsoft, Huhtamaki-Tailored Packaging, Clean Plus Chemicals, Filta NZ, Makita, Essity, Aotearoa NZ Made, Davidson Washroom, Royal Touch, Biopak, MaTtek, Uropa, SCJ Professional, Gojo/Purell, and Seko.
Read more about the RapidClean Conference in the November issue of INCLEAN magazine.
