100 years of expertise serving professionals
In 100 years of existence, the brands of the U2R group have developed a unique know-how in the manufacturing and marketing of innovative and sustainable fluid management solutions for professionals. From design to delivery to the end user, including assembly and packaging, we have always paid attention to mastering the entire production and logistics chain of our products. Over time, we have expanded this industrial expertise to better serve our customers with responsive customer service, efficient supply chains, meticulous marketing, and proficiency in digital tools.
Industrial Know-How at the Heart of Our Business
Production and logistics are the very foundation of our company's DNA: since 1923, our flagship brand RENSON has been designing and manufacturing its products in Northern France and shipping them to customers worldwide. It is a constantly evolving expertise of being a designer, manufacturer, and logistics provider.
Fundamentally Designers and Manufacturers for 100 Years
Even today, we remain true to our roots as a French manufacturer: 50% of the group's total revenue is generated from products manufactured or assembled in our Raillencourt-Sainte-Olle (59) factory.
To achieve this, our new factory, inaugurated in 2012, has multiple production lines, including:
- A production line for high-pressure cleaners, where 3 employees assemble our thermal cleaners, single-phase electric cleaners, and three-phase electric cleaners
- A production line for misting/booster systems, where 2 employees assemble our misting kits, booster units, and complete water management solutions.
- Two production lines for fuel pumps, where 5 employees assemble our pumps and distribution stations for non-road diesel fuel (GNR).
- A cutting and crimping line for hoses for various fluids (water, GNR, oil, grease, Adblue, etc.).
- A line dedicated to custom blister packaging.
- A packaging line to ensure the best protection for our customers' products.
Our factory is also equipped with in-house testing benches. 100% of our high-pressure cleaners and fuel pumps/stations are tested internally using these benches, allowing us to digitize and store all technical specifications for each tested unit. Additionally, a paint booth is used to apply the historic RENSON blue color to our products.
In 1977, we closed our foundry and entrusted this activity to French subcontractors, such as Fonte Ardennaise, while retaining ownership of the molds for our products. Although we are no longer foundry workers, we continue, in the continuity of our history, as machinists. Our old machining machines have been refurbished to comply with modern safety standards and continue to be used for production today.
In 2020, we built a new area dedicated to storage tanks within our factory. It consists of an interior section where a specialized team carries out custom installations for customers, such as complete water or fuel management systems, and an exterior section that ensures a constant supply of tanks for water, fuel, grease, oil, and AdBlue.
Since 2023, the production lines have been optimized through a Warehouse Management System (WMS) to improve reliability and productivity (see "Digital" section).
Logistics Performance as a Priority
What good is designing and manufacturing the best fluid management solutions if we cannot deliver them to our customers under the best conditions? Because meeting deadlines is at the core of our business, we have worked on optimizing all our logistics processes.
Firstly, our receiving department handles a significant volume of goods on a daily basis and stores them in our 10,000 m² storage space with 4,800 pallet locations. These products will be used on our production lines to assemble our products or will be shipped to our customers. Even if they are manufactured by external suppliers, these products are designed according to our own specifications.
Next, our shipping department processes three types of products among our 30,000 references:
- Express products are delivered by the carrier FEDEX. If these products are in stock, they are shipped on the same day as the order and arrive within 24 to 48 hours. Examples include our grease pumps or fuel pumps.
- Standard products are shipped via 1 to 3 pallets by our longstanding partner carrier SCHENKER, which delivers throughout France within 24 to 48 hours. These products, such as our high-pressure cleaners, are often assembled in our factory, and we guarantee a delivery time of 5 days if they are in stock or producible.
- Bulky products such as storage tanks require freight transport with our carrier DSV. The delivery times are slightly longer, ranging from 5 to 10 days.
Together, the receiving and shipping departments consist of around fifteen employees. These flows are also optimized through the WMS (see "Digital" section), but we are also organized on a physical level: each product category and therefore each carrier has its specific shipping line.
To communicate with our customers as transparently as possible, we have developed a precise delivery time calculation algorithm that takes into account various variables such as manufacturing and assembly lead times, or supplier lead times. This formula is constantly adjusted and corrected to be as accurate as possible.
Furthermore, all our packaging has recently been revised with an eco-responsible approach: 100% recyclable, 100% recycled. All our products are packaged with recycled and recyclable materials that are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, ensuring responsible forest management (environmental respect, compliance with laws, workers' rights, indigenous rights, etc.).
Commercial Expertise for Our Customers
If our customers have trusted us for all these years, it is not only because of our industrial expertise but also because of our commercial expertise that continues to grow through daily interactions with them.
Purchasing and Marketing: The Right Products for the Right Markets
Our goal is to offer the right products for the right markets, and this is the joint mission of our marketing and procurement teams.
Our category managers analyze customer needs in different markets and create ideal solutions to meet those needs by developing product ranges for our various brands. Our product managers ensure that we always have up-to-date technical data for each of our references. Rather than staying in our offices, they are frequently on the move, directly interacting with our customers and end users of our products at trade shows, stores, farms, etc., in order to be closely attuned to their needs.
In collaboration with the marketing team, our purchasing and procurement team ensures an appropriate stock level. We are always transparent about our product availability rate, which is even publicly and continuously displayed on the renson.fr website. Since 2020, our product availability rate has never dropped below 95%.
One advantage of being a century-old company is that we have had the time to establish important relationships with certain suppliers, such as ANNOVI REVERBERI, the world's leading manufacturer of high-pressure pumps, with whom we have been working for over 30 years.
We have full confidence in the responsiveness of U2R's teams and the reliability of their products.
Thank you for these years of great cooperation and esteem.”
Responsive Customer Service, Before and After Sales
We apply the same commitment to building lasting trust with our customers as we do with our employees and suppliers. We take pride in offering impeccable customer service to all of our clients, both before and after the sale.
Because we understand the importance of keeping the human touch in our relationships, each of our clients always speaks to the same person when they contact us. Our telephone reception is located in-house with our employees. The team consists of 10 individuals, some of whom are trained to handle administrative matters (such as inquiries about orders or delivery times), while others are 100% specialized in technical issues (such as designing custom installations). Each member of our Sales Administration team works in tandem with two of our 20 field sales representatives who are constantly on the ground, visiting our clients throughout France and worldwide.
In addition to this service, we have 4 dedicated After-Sales Service staff members with their own specific phone line. Due to our 0.3% after-sales service rate, this team primarily focuses on equipment maintenance rather than repairs. For instance, some customers who own RENSON machines that are 20 years old come to us for maintenance, similar to how one would service their car.
We answer 98% of phone calls, and any after-sales service requests received during the day are responded to by the following day at the latest. Our technicians undergo continuous training to be capable of servicing and repairing 100% of the RENSON product range.
Digital: Pioneering the Digital Era
Throughout the decades, the U2R group brands have always embraced innovation, as evidenced by their history of rich innovations. From Jules RENSON's agricultural tools in the 1920s to the revolution of electric pumps in the post-war era, and our latest solutions for methanization, we have always placed great importance on staying at the forefront of innovation.
In the digital age, where modern tools allow us to automate many tasks that were once time-consuming and costly, and where the internet enables instant mass communication, the U2R group has once again positioned itself as a leader by offering new innovative services and tools to its customers, employees, and partners.
Website, ERP, PIM: A Plethora of Digital Tools to Better Serve Our Customers
In the early 2010s, aware of the challenges of the digital transition and the growing gap compared to other professional sectors, the U2R group began to invest heavily in digital tools to better serve our customers.
Among the fundamental tools that established the foundations of digital management in the company, the implementation of the Sage X3 ERP was one of the most important. This ERP contains all the essential information for managing the company in all areas: products, prices, customers, orders, procurement, employees, etc. It has also been extensively customized over time by our specialized partner, Absys Cyborg, to meet all our needs, including integration with our other digital tools.
Another important tool in the digitization of the company is the Product Information Management (PIM) software. This software allows product managers to easily store and manage all the technical and commercial product data.
Together, the ERP and PIM feed our websites, with Renson.fr being the main website. This website has been praised by users of our products, customers, and partners for its qualities:
- It features complete product sheets with descriptions, technical specifications, visuals, 360° photos, manuals, videos, exploded views, spare parts, product comparisons, etc.
- Our customers can view their personalized prices, as well as clearance products and volume-based pricing. Real-time stock levels are displayed for all products, as well as precise delivery and restocking times.
- Customers can easily place orders, which are all tracked for delivery. They also have access to their administrative documents (invoices, purchase orders, delivery notes, etc.) and all our paper catalogs in PDF format.
In early 2022, we launched a new version of the Renson.fr website, introducing even more functionalities aimed at improving the user experience: a new design adapted to all screens, a new module for submitting and managing after-sales service requests, another module allowing customers to create and edit quotes with our products, product configurators in the form of questionnaires, a more precise algorithm for calculating delivery times, and many other enhancements.
Flow Manager, WMS: Embracing Modern Tools to Go Even Further
In 2021, the group established a dedicated Digital Department focused on designing and managing digital tools to further advance the digital transition. Comprising three individuals, this team collaborates with other departments within the group, including marketing, logistics, and management.
Among the innovations brought by the Digital Department, there are solutions aimed at improving internal communication, such as implementing a Wiki (knowledge base), adopting a Slack workspace (instant communication application), and developing an in-house price monitoring solution. This solution automatically reports the prices set by our distributors for our products online, providing our teams with a comprehensive, transparent, and real-time view of our online distribution and adherence to our pricing policy. This initiative has been well-received by our distributors as it ensures equal treatment among them.
Another example that showcases how the U2R group utilizes digital technology to serve commerce with its customers is the Flow Manager.
This software enables us to automatically generate and send digital data flows containing information about our products, prices, stocks, and orders to our customers, ensuring they have up-to-date information at all times. For instance, some of our customers can display on their websites when one of our products is out of stock or even showcase our real-time inventory and precise delivery updates. The Flow Manager also allows our customers to send us order flows and automatically input them into our ERP. This automated data entry represents significant time and resource savings for both our customers and ourselves.
Today, nearly one in three orders in our company is placed through the website or the Flow Manager. This rate has quadrupled in less than four years and is an important indicator that we closely monitor and aim to continuously increase by improving our website and integrating more customers into our Flow Manager.
In 2023, another significant change digitalizes numerous manual tasks within our factory: the introduction of the WMS (Warehouse Management System).
No more back-and-forth to the computer to manually enter information or print labels! All our order pickers are now equipped with handheld electronic devices that allow them to receive picking instructions, scan products, and update order statuses. In addition to improving logistics, the WMS also enhances productivity and reliability in manufacturing and assembly lines through real-time resource tracking and performance reporting on a dashboard.