As the year draws to a close, like most leaders I take an introspective look at the 12 months that have passed. What have we learned? What are the critical challenges for our customers? Do our plans for the year ahead align with those needs? Are we implementing the right process and service enhancements to ensure we continuously improve?
It’s a tall order to fill at any time, but in a dynamic business environment such as this, with so many unprecedented occurrences and conditions, it’s even more difficult. At Bunzl, we know we need to stay the course and ensure our investments in digital capability continue to take a front seat. Providing you with tools that give you quick, easy access to information, e-commerce capabilities and rich data analytics to inform your decision-making is a critical priority.
Our new Bunzl Safety e-commerce platform is a recent example. Launched this month with a pilot group of customers, the new platform will be thoroughly tested and refined based on user feedback. We’ll formally launch in Q1/22 and couldn’t be more excited to show you a platform designed to enhance your buying experience, save you time and money and provide greater visibility to your purchasing and budget management.
We continue to invest in IoT technology, with more advanced feature development for our exclusive wandaNEXT™ smart cleaning management system. Earlier this year we launched cleaning program compliance reporting and added connected dispensing with Tork’s smart soap, towel and tissue dispensers. Mid-year we added a quality audit function to help you not only verify cleaning activities but validate quality. In the New Year, we’ll take that validation a step further, adding surface diagnostics that measure biofilm on critical surfaces to ensure they’re within an acceptable range.
Our ConfidentClean® ecosystem continues to evolve and in the New Year we’ll formally launch our new ConfidentClean® Online Training portal. There you can access 12 CiMS-compliant training modules to increase consistency, quality and sustainability while improving staff knowledge and retention. Whatever building standard you aim to achieve for your facility, ConfidentClean® Online Training can help you get there.
As we see more climate-related natural disasters in our own country and around the world, the urgency to address sustainability is abundantly clear. In 2022 we’ll be introducing more ways to help you do that, from eco-friendly facility cleaning supplies to a wide range of innovative new packaging formats. And of course, you can access our SustainABILITY™ tool to help identify problem packaging substrates, map them to more sustainable alternatives and rank them by environmental preferability, material composition, unit cost and more. (If you haven’t yet seen this exceptional selection tool, ask your Bunzl Grocery/Retail/ Processor rep to schedule a presentation).
It’s been a busy year, and I’m so grateful to our dedicated Bunzl employees. They play a tireless role in keeping our country’s critical supply chains moving. I’m proud of their commitment and their teamwork, and I’m equally committed to ensuring every possible effort continues to be made to keep them, and our customers, healthy and safe.
I’d like to thank you for your confidence in us, and for your business. We’ll continue to work hard every day to ensure we earn both.
Wishing you and your families the very best for the holiday season and the new year.
John Howlett
President, Bunzl Canada