By Sasha Harrinanan Thursday, January 26 2012

The Rubbermaid brand of innovative, high-quality housewares now includes a wide range of home, garden and commercial products, many of which will be available in Trinidad and Tobago from April.

Newell Rubbermaid and its local distributor, AS Brydens and Sons Limited (Brydens), held a “re- launch” party to introduce the new range to their wholesale customers last Thursday.

Display shelves, called planograms, were set up in a conference room at Courtyard by Marriott, Invaders’ Bay, Port-of-Spain to give guests a three-dimensional guide on the ideal product placement to optimise shelf space, inventory turnover and profit margins.

The evening also included a kitchen demo by Chef Bernard Long, about the benefits of using Rubbermaid Lock-It and Lunch Blox containers because they are made from the trademarked Tritan material which resists stains and odours.

“I used the square stackable plastic containers, about the size of a sandwich, to store garlic, croutons, creamy salad dressing, pre-cut vegetables, fruits, imported, expensive lettuce and coffee. The salad ingredients have been in a Rubbermaid cooler for much of the day while the coffee has been stored for a week.

“To demonstrate how well Rubbermaid preserves the freshness and smell of something like coffee, I stored some more coffee in a container from a cheaper brand and some in a Rubbermaid container. Look and smell both and you will clearly see the difference,” Long said.

The audience was then given the opportunity to inspect both containers of coffee.

It was clear to everyone that the coffee stored in the Rubbermaid container was a darker brown and had a richer ‘coffee’ smell.

Chef Long, owner of Bernard’s Gourmet Services, said it was this — the preservative and odour-resistant qualities of the Tritan containers, available in plastic and the newer heat-resistant glass containers, that convinced him Rubbermaid was the only way to go when preparing and transporting dishes for his catering events.

“I cater for several embassies and it’s very convenient to be able to stack containers and have them locked in place. They may look small but they are actually in portion sizes and hold a lot of food,” Long noted.

One usually pays more for quality products and the Rubbermaid brand is no exception.

When it comes to containers and dish racks for example, Manager of Three J’s Wholesale and Retail Variety Store in Tunapuna, Denise James, said “other brands may retail for $30 to $35 while the Rubbermaid version is priced at $70.

My customer base is a mix of mainly lower and middle income shoppers, so even though the recognise the quality and longevity of Rubbermaid, they sometimes opt for the more affordable brand.

“Even so, some customers come in specifically for Rubbermaid items, so I make sure to keep the bestsellers in stock. Food storage containers, dish racks and jugs are among my most popular items.”

James’ experience reflected what a Rubbermaid representative had to say about consumers choosing to “invest” in more expensive brands during hard economic times because they know the products will outlast their cheaper counterparts.

Newell Rubbermaid’s brand manager for the Caribbean, Andean and Central American Regions, Juan Luis Salvador, said this was based on research conducted by the company in the countries where its products are sold.

“Despite low expected growth worldwide and in some areas of the local economy. A growing number of consumers are moving back to brands, looking for ways to save and get better value from their purchases. We expect this year and beyond to see a renewed interest in products that bring additional benefits beyond price, with consumers becoming more savvy and knowledgeable of their desired value proposition, having tried and seen that it is better to buy a good product once, than a bad one many times,” Salvador said.

Director of the Hardware, Housewares and Installation Division of Brydens, Andrew Millar said the company has been selling Rubbermaid products for more than 20 years.

Millar said the company expected a good response to new product lines and new designs, which should begin appearing on local store shelves in April.

“In life you have leaders and followers. Rubbermaid is a leader, they are innovators, having branched out from housewares to home and gardening tools and containers. They have always maintained a high quality and a wide range of goods, which is what has kept people loyal to the Rubbermaid brand and which has led us at Brydens to maintain our long-standing relationship with the company. You can’t go wrong if you invest in anything for the household that has Rubbermaid on it,” Millar stated.