R+R Hub – A Year in Review
With the year coming to a close, now seems like the perfect time to reflect on everything R+R Hub has achieved in very challenging conditions. With the pandemic still very much a force to be reckoned with, R+R Hub managed not just to stand firm, but to continue to grow. We have acquired a further 8000sq ft at our base in Netherfield and added three new employees to our team.
Building our relationships
One of the main takeaways from 2021 is that a lot of businesses needed to rethink how they did business. In some cases, this has meant putting COVID19 safe working practices in place. These may potentially be removed once COVID19 is brought fully under control. In other cases, it has meant companies making changes that are intended to be permanent.
Regardless of whether the changes are meant to be temporary or permanent, they have inevitably resulted in some level of disruption. In many cases, the businesses implementing them have been operating in an uncertain environment. In some cases, this uncertainty has been extreme.
This is exactly the situation where businesses especially SMBs appreciate suppliers and partners stepping in to help them out. This can mean anything from coming up with creative solutions so that they can be COVID19 safe to just showing flexibility in regular business dealings.
R+R Hub stepped up to the challenge. We’ve spent this last year helping out whenever we’ve been able. As a result, we built our relationships with customers, suppliers and the wider business community.
Launching a new website
Like many of our customers and suppliers, we used the pandemic to revaluate our own business. The initial lockdown forced us to take a break from “business as usual”. We used this time to think about what we needed to do to ensure that we continued to deliver what our customers wanted. Our aim was not just to meet their expectations but to exceed them whenever possible.
As a part of this, we created a new website, https://www.rrhub.co.uk/. This provides us with a much better way to showcase our offering. In particular, it allows us to educate customers on what may be unfamiliar solutions such as smart fridges. We can also highlight offerings they may not be aware of, such as our ability to supply buffets and workplace treats.
We also worked with local film producer, Sam Lindley, to create our R+R Hub Promo video. This showcased not just our products and services but also our ability to integrate with existing facilities. It also highlighted our ability to provide both security and customizability, such as providing foods suitable for different dietary preferences.
Working with Specsavers
Prior to COVID19, Specsavers had an excellent and very popular in-house canteen. When COVID19 hit, this, sadly, had to be closed. Specsavers enlisted R+R Hub and sister company Cema to fill in the gap. Cema took care of providing hot and cold foods and drinks through their vending machines. R+R Hub’s main responsibility was to ensure that the office stayed well-caffeinated.
We were able to revive Specsavers’ existing fresh milk machine and get it refuelled with locally-sourced coffee beans from 200 Degrees. We also helped to organize their return to work activities. This included supplying delicious breakfast burritos from Jake + Nayns, Posh Nosh pastries and cans of pop for their street food lunch days. We were even able to help Specsavers to find a street food vendor.
Creating a new brand
Our next major project is to create a new brand in partnership with our sister company Cema. The Workplace Refreshments site is a one-stop online shop for customers’ workplace food needs. Customers can browse hundreds of products, make one-off purchases and set up/manage recurring orders.
