Let’s talk Innovation, with Chairman Steff Wright

Firstly, Steff, please tell us a bit about yourself and your role.

I'm Steff Wright, Chairman of the Gusto Group. We bought the Rototek business in 2010 when it went into administration, at the time it had 40 very talented employees who were working with great technology, but the business was failing commercially. Through our investments, we have taken Rototek to 100+ employees and continued to develop the company as a leader in the rotational moulding industry.

What does innovation mean to you? 

Innovation means finding ways to solve problems and building on existing technologies. Quite often innovation can come from having an understanding across a number of different sectors and joining up ideas that other people who are more fixed in their single sector have previously not been able to connect.

How have Rototek innovated over the years?

Right from the early days of Rototek, the founders were very focused on using computer technology to control the production cycle during the heating and cooling stage. This allowed them to make more intricate products and control the quality, which was something that wasn’t possible with the old-fashioned open flame rotational moulding machines. Rototek developed their own software which has subsequently been shared with other machine manufacturers.

However, whilst controlling the cycle led to efficiency and quality improvements, it still relied on gas heated ovens which have a large carbon footprint and don’t have the ability to pinpoint heat to an exact area of the tool. Our current focus is on innovating through the development of electrically heated tooling which firstly enables us to use renewable energy in place of gas, and secondly allows us to be far more accurate as to the heat transfer across different elements of the mould.

What inspired Rototek to invest in an all-electric oven, and what are your expectations for its impact on your operations? 

Our reason for investing in an all-electric oven was firstly to address an enormous area of our carbon footprint, our Scope 1 emissions (which is the equivalent to driving 504 times around the world every year!). Another huge positive that will come with this innovation is the opportunity to manufacture more complex products and the ability to utilize more recycled content within the manufacturing process.

All of these features have an appeal to a growing number of our customers which justified the business case for this substantial investment in both R&D and new equipment.

How does the all-electric oven align with your company’s broader goals for sustainability and efficiency?

The new machine will reduce our reliance on gas and increase our demand for electricity, which has the possibility to be generated on-site or more easily sourced as renewable energy from the grid. We will therefore look at ways to generate our own electricity on site through both solar and battery storage, which will allow us to reduce our Scope 2 emissions.

Have you received any initial feedback from your team or stakeholders about the shift to all-electric, and what are their thoughts on this innovation? 

Having become a B Corp Certified company over a year ago, there has been a lot of talk amongst our employees about sustainability and this step change is a physical manifestation of our commitment to sustainability. We are also transitioning to become an employee owned company in 2027 with a focus on sustainable growth, and our employees are keen to learn more about the all-electric oven as this is a key part of Rototek’s growth strategy. Our customers are keen to see the first products rolling off the production line and excited to be working with a company that are innovating within our industry.

One of the exciting things about innovation is that when you go down a new path with new technology, you are never sure what other innovations will follow. Our design team are keen to work with design teams across our customer base to come up with new products which wouldn’t have been possible using the old rotational moulding technology.

Looking ahead, what milestones will you use to evaluate the success of this new investment?

As the all-electric oven only arrived in our factory before Christmas, our first milestone will be to produce quality products for our first customer which will enable us to showcase the technology to other customers. The business case will then be justified when other customers can see the added value from an electrically heated manufacturing process, enabling them to come up with new product ideas which were previously not possible using gas fired ovens. This will not only satisfy some of our existing market but will also open up a new market for rotationally moulded products. One product we have been working on with our European partners is the production of lightweight hydrogen storage cylinders for vehicles.