RS Supplier Newsletter – January 2026

To start the new year off, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we delivered during the second half of 2025.

We look back on a busy exhibition and RS event program, when we ran a series of RS Connect events across Europe. These events are a fantastic opportunity for our colleagues, our suppliers and our customers to meet in person to share ideas, challenges and solutions. And it is always great to hear the buzz of conversation and feel the energy in the room.

We then head off to Germany to reflect on our 2025 EMEA Supplier Event in Munich, including our inaugural EMEA supplier awards, and SPS 2025 in Nuremberg, where our stand was busy and filled with meaningful conversations with customers and suppliers alike as we showcased our product offering and service solutions.

October saw the implementation of Release 2 of our Product Management Solutions (PMS) project, designed to further accelerate the speed and efficiency of our product launch processes. We know that Release 1 came with some frustrations as new processes embedded, and we have taken on board your feedback to make ensure a better experience for everyone as we roll out Release 2 and I’d like to thank you for your support as we implement these improvements.

As we reach the halfway point in our 2030 ESG action plan, you can find out more about the progress we’re making as we work together with our people, customers, and suppliers to make amazing happen for a better world.

Our industry-leading Better World product framework plays a significant part in driving customer and supplier value through our ESG plan, establishing a clear and robust sustainability standard for our industry that benefits both customers and suppliers.

With our ambition to grow the Better World product range to over 100,000 products by 2030,hear how we are working with Rittal to include and promote more sustainable solutions across our supply chain.

And finally, I’m delighted to share that RS Group has retained its place on the CDP A List for 2025, placing us among the top 4% of companies worldwide for climate leadership. This recognition reflects the progress we’re making – from reducing carbon and decarbonising logistics to building a more sustainable industrial value chain with our partners.

There’s still plenty more to achieve, and we’re committed to working with you to create positive impact through sustainable products, carbon reductions, and greater transparency. Thank you for your continued support and for being such an important part of this journey.

So all-in-all, a comprehensive newsletter to close out 2025 and set the stage for our continued collaboration and success throughout 2026!

Thank you

Kristian Olsson

Senior Vice President, Product & Supplier Management, EMEA

🚀 Go to Market evolution: We shared how we're continuing to approach the market with a sharp customer focus and how our VAS (value added solutions) generate product pull-through.

🧩 Multi-Category Specialism: Key updates from our category teams to share what we have delivered over the last 18 months, from deeper partnerships to range expansion.

🔧 Operations: We reflected on PMS R1, highlighting accelerated NPI capacity and improved customer experience. We also previewed PMS R2, which promises to make an even bigger difference to both you, our suppliers, and our customers.

🛠️ Technical Expertise: How we’re bridging the gap between design and technical propositions, creating seamless, smarter solutions for suppliers and customers alike.

🌱 ESG Commitment: Our ESG approach is more than a promise, it’s a platform to help our suppliers reach their own sustainability goals.

🧭 Four Experience Zones: We took a deep dive into Customer Experience & Digital Marketing, Go To Market, Supply Chain and Product & Supplier Management, and ESG - showcasing how each team fuels supplier success.

Closing the day with some well-deserved recognition

We wrapped up the day by celebrating the amazing work of our teams and partners at our inaugural EMEA Supplier Awards Dinner.

Kristian Olsson, Senior Vice President, Product & Supplier Management, EMEA said “The opportunity to come together with our supplier partners at our EMEA Supplier Event is a great opportunity to share our strategy, vision and progress on our latest projects, and strengthen our partnerships for the future. The evening saw us host our awards dinner, recognising the fantastic contributions of our supplier partners across six core categories – congratulations to all our winners and nominees.

“For so many of our suppliers to take time out of their busy schedules to attend our event speaks volumes for the commitment and desire to work with RS, and a consistent theme in our suppliers’ feedback was how we presented a compelling and aligned outlook for our continued supplier partnerships going forwards.”

You can watch all sessions from the day here, and if you would like to find out more about the event, please get in touch with your RS Category Manager.

What’s New?

We’ve introduced several enhancements to streamline processes for our suppliers, as well as improving the quality of product information for our customers:

• Enhanced Product Information Management(PIM): A new, comprehensive data model ensures richer, more relevant product attributes and better integration with digital channels.
• Localisation upgrades: Content can now start in any language and be translated from any language, improving speed and quality for global markets.
• Content briefs: Clear, system-driven briefs define what content is needed for each product, helping prioritise impactful assets like imagery and datasheets.
• Variant management: Structured data for product families ensures consistency and supports flexible merchandising options.
• Maintenance & scalability: Technology enhancements allow us to maintain quality across a growing product range of 1.2M+ items.
• Customer Experience Enablement: Data and content improvements unlock personalized, seamless omni-channel experiences.

Benefits for you

These changes are designed to make working with us easier, slicker and more efficient through:

• Faster product launches: Bottlenecks removed; more capacity for new products.
• Less manual effort: We extract and format data from your datasheets—no extra workload.
• Clearer processes: Improved reporting and visibility on product status.
• Better, and more effective, customer reach: Richer, localised content drives higher engagement and conversion.

What we need from you

To maximise these benefits and keep the process fast and efficient, here’s what we ask from you:

• Simplified data: Key product details, pricing, and compliance info (now reduced from 60+ attributes to ~20).
• Datasheets: In languages relevant to where products will be sold.
• Product imagery: As defined by the content brief.
• Optional API integration: For suppliers ready to automate data sharing.

Whilst we’re really excited about the significant volume and improved quality that PMS release 2 brings, we do recognise that some of you may be experiencing frustration that we are still restricting our NPI volumes on the back of the release. We wanted to address the reasons behind that now, as well as the timeline for our new and improved service to resume at scale.

As part of the release, we created a new, more comprehensive and relevant data model for describing products. Whilst this brings significant opportunity to improve our customers’ ability to find and decide on your product, it also means that our rules for generating product titles have been rebuilt from scratch. Therefore, to mitigate any SEO risk associated to such large-scale change, and to ensure we get the upsides as quickly as possible, we are staggering the release of our new content online by category, prioritised by NPI requirement and supplier partnership programme needs.

This activity is planned to be fully completed by the end of January, but we expect the majority of NPI will be unlocked sooner. Following completion of this activity, our next focus area will be how we best communicate the progress of specific NPI to you – an essential, ongoing requirement given the scale of what we’ll have flowing through at any one point in time.

If you would like any more information or have any questions on PMS, please contact your Category Manager.

Thank you for your continued support on this journey to improve our NPI processes. We look forward to working closely with you as PMS Release 2 transforms how, in partnership together, we deliver better experiences for customers and unlock new growth opportunities for your products.

With the great support from our partners Arduino, CRC, Megger, Omron and TRACO Power, we presented various examples of hands-on technologies and products as well as service solutions, ScanStock® and VendStock®. Interactive displays, including our very own vending machine on our stand, our fully-functional RS PRO workshop and craneXperience – an interactive crane challenge – were a bit hit in attracting visitors to our stand and collecting valuable leads.

Our RS trade fair team of colleagues Sales, Marketing, Value Added Solutions and RS PRO showed full commitment over 3 full trade fair days, always paired with a lot of humour and team spirit, and was able to hold over 400 extensive conversations. RS PRO was also able to successfully position itself with potential new customers, thanks in part to the workbench to try out, which was very popular throughout the trade fair.

A special thank you goes to our RS team on site and to our partner suppliers. We were able to successfully fill the trade fair stand with life, activities and many valuable conversations from which we can create new and long-term customer relationships.

We’re already looking forward to what SPS 2026 will bring. Thanks to everyone who visited us and made this event one to remember!

• Carbon emissions are down 64% since our 2019/20 baseline, driven by net zero initiatives in our distribution centres and fleet. Almost half of our global fleet is now electric or hybrid
• We’ve made packaging greener with more recycled content and better recyclability. 89% of packaging now includes over 50% recycled content, and 95% is recyclable
• On logistics, we’ve cut product transport emissions by 14% so far this year, and 35% since our baseline. This is the first time since the pandemic that we’ve been able to benefit from wider transport industry decarbonisation, and we’re delighted that our carriers continue to prioritise sustainability
• Our flagship initiative, Better World products, is gaining momentum – now 33,000 products from 140+ suppliers, with plans to introduce more sustainable solutions into the range. Contact your RS representative for more information on how to join
• Supplier collaboration has been incredible: 40% of you have set science-based targets, 57% joined EcoVadis, and 78% of RS PRO suppliers are Sedex members. Please continue to prioritise these areas!
• Through our Youth programme, we’ve reached 950,000 young innovators since 2020/21 via initiatives like Formula Student and partnerships with Engineers Without Borders
• And we’ve launched a new global social impact partnership with SolarAid to bring clean, safe solar energy to communities in sub-Saharan Africa – aiming to reach 150,000 people in need over the next three years

We know there’s more to do, and we’re committed to working closely with you to push ESG progress even further – through sustainable products, carbon reductions, and greater supply chain transparency.

There are plenty of ways to get involved and drive value:

• ESG supplier action plan – Join the Better World product range, set Science-based targets, sign our Ethical Trading Declaration or provide your own and join EcoVadis or Sedex to help strengthen our impact across the supply chain
• Youth programme – Help inspire future engineers through product donations, offering mentoring and expertise or by sponsoring our flagship events like Formula Student
• SolarAid – Collaborate with us on impactful initiatives – from contributing product donations and technical expertise to joint marketing campaigns – showcasing your commitment to electrification, renewables and social impact. You can find out more about our partnership with SolarAid, including how to donate, here

All of these achievements have resulted in RS Group retaining our place on the CDP A-List for 2025, placing us among the top 4% of companies worldwide for climate leadership.

For more details, reach out to your RS contact or download our latest ESG Supplier Handbook for guidance and support.

Huge thanks to you all for being part of this journey. Together, we’re making amazing happen for a better world.

Dominique Manet, Managing Director at Rittal, commented:

“We are delighted that Rittal Blue e+ climate control units have been recognised by the RS Better World framework. This recognition demonstrates our commitment to providing customers with more sustainable solutions and through collaborative efforts with RS, helps promote more sustainable practices in the industry.”

This collaboration between RS and Rittal is a great example of how we can work together with our supplier partners to reduce environmental impact and support our customers in making informed, responsible choices as Danny Hobson, Head of Product & Supplier Sustainability outlines,

“I’m delighted to welcome Rittal’s Blue e+ product range to our Better World product portfolio, as their go-to market partner to help our customers advance sustainability across our industry.”

Our goals and ambitions can only be realised through collaboration with our valued supplier partners. If you’d like to learn more about the RS Better World framework or how your products could be included, please get in touch with our Better World Product team

• Carbon emissions down 64% since our 2019/20 baseline, thanks to net zero initiatives in our distribution centres and fleet. A number of our key sites are powered by solar panels and almost half of our global fleet is now electric or hybrid. This year we switched our RS UK Safety Solutions HGVs from diesel to biofuels, made from food waste like vegetable oil and the RS Locals vans to electric vans.
• Greener packaging: 89% of packaging now includes over 50% recycled content, and 95% is recyclable. We’ve also introduced a bio-based polymer into plastic carriers used for small electronic items at our Corby site – helping to cut single-use plastic and reduce waste!
• Logistics decarbonisation: Product transport emissions are down 35% since our 2019/20 baseline, supported by logistics optimisation to reduce distance travelled and the switch to electric last miles – all enabled by our regional distribution model and our carriers prioritising sustainability.
• Better World products: Now includes c.33,000 products from 140+ suppliers, with plans to expand the framework even further to help customers run their businesses more sustainably.
• Supplier collaboration: 40% have set science-based targets, 57% have joined EcoVadis, and 78% of RS PRO suppliers are Sedex members.

Andrea Barrett, Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “Being on the CDP A List reflects the collective effort of our teams and partners to reduce environmental impact while creating long-term value for our customers and stakeholders.

“The engagement at our recent EMEA Supplier Conference in Munich was inspiring – I left energised knowing our partners share our commitment to building a more sustainable supply chain and helping to meet our customer’s ESG needs.

"There’s more to do, and we’re committed to continuing this journey with transparency, collaboration and ambition."

More information about our sustainability approach can be found here.