RONCO emphasizes the protection of the head, hand, and body for workers on the job across its native home of Canada.
According to RONCO’s Vice President of Marketing and Global Quality, Vani Kshattriya, in the safety industry, accidents happen because a worker sacrificed safety for comfort in a crucial moment. As a responsible safety company, one of the obligations that RONCO has to its end users is to develop products that provide both comfort and safety at maximum levels to minimize accidents. To this end, the company researches and develops new materials for the personal protective equipment (PPE) world and is at the forefront of innovation in its industry.
Since the company’s previous feature in Manufacturing in Focus in 2022, both RONCO’s workplace environment and its internal workings have changed considerably for the better. Two years ago, in the more immediate wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, RONCO was both very busy and had many of its employees working from home.
President Ron Pecchioli says that, when everyone is working independently of one another, they are less able to understand the full picture of what the company culture is trying to achieve; it is something best experienced together in person. Now, all workers are back under the same roof and are engaging in the RONCO spirit of camaraderie and collaboration as before. Director of Business Excellence Daniel Pecchioli points out that, at the beginning of this year, the RONCO team was redeveloped to foster a greater sense of internal competition that aims to increase the level of teamwork, especially across different departments.
The workforce continues to forge ahead with new and exciting PPE technology, and RONCO has also expanded its operations physically in the past two years, opening a new master distribution warehouse in Romania to serve its European customer base. It also opened an office in Vietnam that will provide help on the product development and management side, as well as with quality control and international business development.
Currently, RONCO is effectively utilizing both its internal and external know-how to benefit its operations. Vani says that the company’s ongoing partnership with McMaster University is a major boon in keeping it ahead of the technology curve. As one of Canada’s most prestigious research universities, McMaster encourages collaboration between its students and RONCO workers with the full resources of the university to help RONCO take up the latest developments in technology. In the last few years, McMaster and RONCO have partnered to create the Centre of Excellence for Protective Equipment and Materials (CEPEM), a wing consisting of industry partners and leaders who maintain awareness of compliance changes in the industry and meet with legislative bodies to stay at the forefront of any shifts in the market.
RONCO also works with CSA (Canadian Standards Association) on this front for endeavors like updating quality manuals to reflect the products produced for the Canadian market. To further help stay in compliance and on top of its quality, the company employs Hit & Miss, a homegrown system which keeps track of product lot numbers, supply chains, and where products go and who uses them. If anything happens at any stage, Hit & Miss can trace it.
As a PPE company, RONCO’s focus is always on how to make its equipment as safe and as wearable as possible for the end user. For example, cut resistance is an important factor for safety equipment due to the prevalence of cut hazards on a job site; today, the company boasts gloves with 21-gauge thickness, meaning the product is ultra-fine without compromising the safety aspect. “Products are becoming safer and provide [customers] comfort,” Vani says.
Fabric breathability is another concern for modern PPE. Since equipment like coveralls and chemical-protective clothing must be worn for 10- to 12-hour shifts, if the material cannot breathe, it is not optimal for the end user. Products like the XP 1800 coverall are liquid-resistant but still breathable for maximum comfort and protection.
RONCO also continues to make moves toward creating greener products for today’s more ecology-minded consumers. The business now features an entire product line called RONCO Earth, a line of sustainable products that is ever-expanding to meet the needs of a market more committed to sustainable materials. The first product of this line was introduced in 2020 and has since grown into a line of biodegradable PPE, intended to cut down on the amount of outdated PPE taking up space in global landfills. RONCO frequently makes use of plastic bottles in its manufacturing processes, including within its disposable and industrial glove ranges, another big move toward reducing waste and carbon emissions through good manufacturing practices.
The outlook for the PPE industry is currently very positive, especially now that COVID-19 procedures have been relaxed globally. Early in the pandemic, there were many players in the industry that flooded the market with products of varying quality. This abundance led to product demand becoming unstable and it was not a particularly steady time in the PPE market. Supply and demand have since stabilized but the supply chain is seeing difficulties now, leading to longer lead times and congestion across myriad industries. Ron Pecchioli explains that these problems are also due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the supply chain should hopefully stabilize by the end of 2024.
Vani says that new and burgeoning partnerships help address these challenges in the market; RONCO has strong partnerships with manufacturers in many countries, as well as relationships that have endured since the company’s inception in 1996. “When you’re scrambling, good partners come to your rescue,” she says. As well, RONCO’s teams in countries like China (an area of the business that continues to expand) can keep their fingers on the pulse of the market, which can help spot problems coming farther down the road, so communication with these locations is imperative.
By the end of this year, more products will be introduced into the RONCO Earth line, and the company is already planning its raw materials for its line of products coming this winter. “Our team is very proactive; we don’t wait for information to come to us,” Daniel Pecchioli says. This approach can sometimes mean taking on a higher amount of risk, but it’s what the business feels it must do to deliver the final goods to its customers.
Elsewhere, the European expansion of RONCO will continue. The crew is eagerly anticipating its participation in an upcoming show in Romania this fall that will bring more developments to the international business development front. The company will also be aiming to improve its systems communications between itself and its customer base, with a bigger launch in this area coming later in 2024.
The feeling in the company currently is one of excitement and possibility as the RONCO brand continues to expand and improve—which can only mean good things for its customers for a long time to come.
