This week, we met with ‘Max Adam’, Sales & Marketing Director of RP Adam Ltd at their offices in Edinburgh to gain a better understanding of the 124 year old family owned chemical manufacturing business. One of the most respected suppliers of detergents and disinfectants to the UK hospitality industry, we wanted to hear more about their heritage, product portfolio and their service proposition and what the business offers to the restaurant, hotel, contract catering and leisure sectors.
RP Adam Ltd was founded in 1891 in the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, by Robert Purves Adam. Today, as a fourth generation, independently owned family business, it continues to prosper, and specialises in the manufacture of cleaning and disinfection chemical products for the leisure, hospitality and health sectors.
The UK parent company’s factory is currently registered to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 for quality and environmental management standards and it’s “Blue Box” premium chemical products are all made at its Selkirk factory base under the “Arpal” brand which has also been also visible in the Middle East for over 35 years.
Having been one of the first Western companies to sell cleaning and hygiene products into Saudi Arabia in 1977 the company was recognised as an outstanding ambassador for UK business abroad, when it was awarded the Queens Award for Export Achievement in 1983. In 1987, an agreement was reached with one of Saudi’s foremost trading families to manufacture and sell Arpal products under licence in Saudi Arabia and we are proud to say that, after 28 years, our manufacturing and trading agreement is still going strong.
Today, it has a manufacturing facility in Dubai, and its trading business, Arpal Gulf LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary, serves the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, and Bahrain and has been operating now for nearly 20 years. Middle Eastern regional export expansion is a cornerstone for the group growth plans over the next few years.
RP Adam (UK) deals primarily through a national and regional distributor network, which in turn supplies end user businesses. The company is highly respected by end users and distributor partners for both the quality of its products and its on-going commitment to being the outstanding provider of service in the industry.
With a can-do attitude and a passion for how well our “Blue Box” chemical products perform the sales team puts immense pressure on our technical department and in-house laboratory to create high quality formulations to suit the high traffic leisure, hospitality, health and commercial cleaning sectors – and they don’t let us down.
They constantly review our processes and keep us abreast of changes in European legislation governing the chemicals industry. This “behind-the-scenes” work provides our customers with supply chain security and ensures that the products and systems we provide are bona fide and are legally compliant.
For example, a new global system for classifying chemicals is currently in progress. This will change the hazard classifications, labelling and packaging (CLP) of most cleaning chemicals used in the workplace. The changes are quite radical, so chemical distributors and end users of cleaning products need to be aware of the implications of new hazard symbols and warnings on the chemicals that they handle on a daily basis. RP Adam Ltd undertakes to have all our products re-classified and products labelling altered and accompanying SDS information updated by the June 2015 deadline.
RP Adam is a highly competent and credible chemical manufacturing company, capable of handling any size of multi-chain hospitality contract. Cleaning chemicals are often seen as a commodity cost for professional consumers, so the business has invested hugely in added value services and our long-standing blue chip client list demonstrates that these credentials and capabilities are valued.
Our primary aim is to be seen as the outstanding provider of service in our industry by being within reach of our customers and distributors at all times, irrespective of their size, location and market sector. Recent innovations in digital communications, between our field sales and service team, head office and clients, have set RP Adam Ltd apart from the crowd in terms of willingness to be as close to our customers as possible.
The UK operation resources this service promise with a team of employed field Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) spread across the UK. This team utilises an innovative “real time” field service reporting system, enabling site visit reports, training records, information and engineering jobs/requests to be sent to and from clients’ premises instantly via our bespoke RP Adam App.
Proactive field support is critical in the smooth running of a hospitality client contract. Our clients don’t see salesmen – they see friendly service personnel who act as client technical consultants. They are tasked with troubleshooting, checking chemical dosing equipment is functioning correctly, ensuring the correct stock lines are on site and finally to ensure chemical safety training is offered on every site-visit. Using tablet technology each field service employee is simply one click away from providing a client with an e-brochure, Products Guidance Sheet, a wall chart or a Safety Data Sheet there and then.
The team also focusses on ensuring customers are not tying up cash with unnecessarily high levels of stock (cash). Unlike other companies, we are in the business of saving money for our clients – rather than the pre-occupation of chasing the sale. So where inventory control is a key driver for multi-site customers, the company utilises RFID technology which is, in simple terms, an intelligent electronic tagging system.
We place specially encoded tags within store cupboards and on every pre-agreed routine visit a mobile phone scans the encoded sticker and reports on any material anomalies. For example, overstocking at a site can be recorded, photographed and e-mailed to an appropriate person in real time, and immediate steps taken to prevent further orders being placed and delivered until stocks have reverted to normal levels.
Our objective every single day is to be seen by our customers as the outstanding provider of service in the cleaning industry – it is in our DNA, and the use of this technology allows us to not only plan our service workload far better, but also to ensure our clients are not wasting money by holding excessive chemical stocks. Some customers don’t need this kind of level of support, but the ones that do absolutely rely on it. The busy restaurant and hotel chains, the 24/7 care home market and building services contractors all demand this type of service.
Many of our detergents are vended through automated dosing systems so our engineering department efficiently co-ordinates a team of fully trained electrical engineers, covering the UK. They programme, install and repair electronic dosing systems for dishwashers and laundry machines. This level of cover now allows us to give a customer guarantee that all breakdowns will be covered within 24 hours and all new installations completed within 5 working days (from initial request to completion).
We eliminate the “hassle factor” of changing chemicals supplier by taking ownership of change, and working strictly to customer requirements. In many instances we mobilise during the night to prevent any significant hold ups or dislocation to the customer operation.
Wasted time is wasted money; therefore a prompt, stable, efficient and professional engineering function is absolutely critical to our capability credentials. Whether it be high maintenance in-flight catering operations, or a large commercial laundry or an estate of budget hotels, we apply the same principles – plan properly, and do it right first time, on time and to our customers satisfaction. In practice, this means that if we receive a report of a breakdown in an area where we already have an engineer in operation, there is a good chance that it can be attended to that same working day.
Our website provides detailed information on our product portfolio, by sector and by cleaning category and is full of technical product information and safety advice. The Arpal Group Blog is designed to provide visitors informative industry news, updates on new legislation impacting on safety, the environment and cleaning innovations. We aim to be thought leaders for our industry and our customers. Sometimes controversial, we will not shy away from making our opinions clear, but your opinions matter too, so please let us know your thoughts – don’t be a stranger. Here are three examples of recent series we have posted which have been compiled into downloadable e-Books:
Mechanical Dish & Glass Washing: Efficient and effective dish and glass washing is critical to many of our customers. Professional cleaning chemical suppliers play an important role in ensuring that the wash process results in hygienically clean and dry crockery, cutlery and glassware delivered in a prompt, reliable, efficient and professional way.
For the Auto Dish & Glass Washing eBook click here
Food Safety & Disinfection: Following extensive consultations with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), we can now offer up-to-date, best practice advice covering the use of bactericidal chemical products and the correct procedures for the control of cross-contamination of food poisoning bacteria within commercial food premises.
For the Food Safety and Disinfection eBook click here
New Chemical Hazard Legislation: A whole raft of new chemical legislation is winging its way towards companies involved with professional cleaning products, none more so than the new global system for classifying chemicals. This will change the hazard classifications and labelling of most cleaning chemicals currently being used in the workplace.
For the CLP Regulations eBook click here
So as we approach our 125th birthday in early 2016, we do so with great pride in our longevity in business, but also with great expectations for the next chapter in our evolution. We are investing significantly in our plant, our people and in technology so that we can continue to respond to the ever more demanding needs of the hospitality industry at home and abroad. We welcome on-board any hospitality business who wants to partner with us, and we will always strive to never give you a reason look elsewhere for cleaning chemicals.
H & C News comment
It was really interesting meeting with Max Adam. RP Adam clearly have a wealth of experience in the manufacture of cleaning and disinfection chemical products for the leisure, hospitality and health sectors and their long term success in the Middle East is testimony to the durability of their business
To contact “Scotland’s other cherished liquid asset” you can find us on all the channels listed below – don’t be a stranger!
RP Adam Ltd, Arpal Works, North Riverside Industrial Estate, Riverside Road, Selkirk, TD7 5DU
Customer Services: 01750 23780
E-mail: Leeanne.gillie@rpadam.co.uk
Direct Line: 01750 23785
Visit our website here
Find our blog here