Rhino Racking
Summary
Bryan Greenwood and Justin Sanders, founders and owners of Rhino Racking, discuss their passion for the racking industry and how it led them to start their own company. They talk about their one year of existence and their expertise in warehousing and logistics. They also share their thoughts on warehouses always being out of space and how optimizing storage can help. Triton is a racking and storage company that offers customized solutions for warehouses of all sizes. They cater to a variety of customers, including warehouse managers, operations managers, and procurement managers. They also work closely with warehouse real estate agents to help their clients with moving in or out of a warehouse. Their tagline, "Strong Racking, Smart Solutions. Built for You." highlights their ability to customize solutions for each customer's specific needs and goals. They can work with clients anywhere in Rhino Racking is a company that specializes in providing custom warehouse solutions for businesses. They offer a variety of products, including 3D modeling and different types of racking systems, to help meet the specific needs of their clients. When working with customers, they emphasize communication and managing expectations to ensure a smooth project. They have experience working in both new and existing warehouses, and understand the challenges that may come with each. Rhino Racking has strong relationships with their suppliers, giving them buying The hosts ask the guests about the current trends in the racking industry, particularly in terms of pricing and lead times. The guests discuss the importance of relationships with material suppliers and the varying lead times for different types of racking systems. They also touch on the potential impact of newer storage technologies, such as cube storage and VMs. The hosts inquire about the origin of the guests' company logo, a rhino, and the guests explain the brainstorming process and fun they had designing it The Warehouse Underground Podcast interviewed Rhino Racking, a startup racking solutions company, to discuss their background, products, and future plans. They provide a wide range of racking solutions for warehouses and other storage facilities, including custom options and installation services. The company is eager to grow and expand their reach, and can be found on various social media platforms. They also thanked the podcast host for the opportunity to share their story.
Transcription
Ben Hopkins
[00.00.08]
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to another episode at the Warehouse Underground podcast, Real Talk or Warehouse DC and FC professionals of all levels around the globe. I am then the host of the show and joining me on the show today, Brian Greenwood and Justin Sanders. They are the founders and owners of Rhino racking, tough, racking, smarter storage. Now, I've been in this industry a long time. I've seen thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of racks. You go into any warehouse, you find them. But what I don't know is what's it like on the other side of the fence? What's it like with a rocking company? How do you go about the installations? How do you go about acquiring your customers? How do you find your steel? All sorts of questions that I think it's good for people to know about racking because they're everywhere in every facility that you ever go into. Plus, I really enjoy highlighting startups on the Warehouse Underground podcast. So these guys check both those boxes. So with that, I will bring them on the stage right now. All right. Cool. So Brian Justin guys, thank you very much for joining the Warehouse Underground podcast. How are you guys doing?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.01.19]
Good, good. Thanks for having us today.
Justin Sanders
[00.01.20]
Great. Yes. Thanks for having us. Awesome.
Ben Hopkins
[00.01.22]
Absolutely. All right. So you guys are your startup, right? You're you're in the racking space with rhino racking. And we'll talk a lot about that in the show. But before we do that, though, just let the audience know about you. What is your background in the industry and kind of what led you to where you are today with the company?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.01.41]
Yeah. So so Justin and I, as far as the industry goes, we, we we used to work together for a large national racking company and we, um, you know, we we went into that at the same time and we were, uh, you know, we were at the company for the same time, and we both just kind of, um, fell in love with the industry. Um, you know, we developed a real passion for, uh, for what we were doing and, and what we were learning, and, um, and we, we both kind of realized the niche that that racking is an opportunity. And, you know, if we learn this and we get it right, you know, there's there's a great future for us here. Um, so we, um, like I said, it, I think for me, that's where it started, just with the passion and yeah, going to work every day. Just wanted to learn and wanted to put it together. Um, I tell my kids, uh, I basically am growing up playing with Legos every day because that's what I'm lacking, is you just putting pieces together and building something. So, um, so I just we, you know, like I said, for me, I've talked to Justin before. I know he feels the same way, but we just kind of, um, you know, develop that passion for the industry and saw the opportunity.
Justin Sanders
[00.02.49]
Yeah. For sure. Um, yeah. I'm expanding on that, too. Yeah, I, I kind of have a little fun with it. We we joke and we call ourselves racking nerds. Right? Because, uh. Yeah. Um, you know, it's fun for us to get creative and come up with solutions for customers, you know, based on their needs. And it's it's fun doing it. And it's nice to see the, you know, the finished result. Customer be happy with the, uh, solution that we provide to them. Not everybody knows. You know, pallet racking isn't a very exciting topic to those that don't fully understand it or, you know, they try to learn it when they need it. And, you know, let us come through and, um, pick out the right solution for you. So like I said, we get a little nerdy with it, but we do have a passion for it. You know,
Ben Hopkins
[00.03.28]
I mean, it's exciting to me. I like it, if that counts.
Justin Sanders
[00.03.32]
Yeah, sure. Well. Thank you. You got a fan? Yeah, absolutely.
Ben Hopkins
[00.03.36]
Absolutely. So. Well, so I mentioned Rhino is a startup, and you know how how long, how old are you? I mean, how long, how long have you existed with Rhino and kind of what's it all about? I mean, what's that been like for you so far?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.03.51]
Yeah. So we just hit our one year, um, recently. So we're at. We're at 13 months. Thank you. Uh, 15 months since we filed the LLC. Um, and it was just me and Justin sitting, uh, sitting around one day, uh, you know, he's a close friend of mine. We, you know, we, uh, our time ended with that, you know, racking company. And we went our own ways in our career, but we, uh, we would talk all the time about, you
Justin Sanders
[00.04.13]
know, um, warehouse racking. And I would tell Justin I was, you know, in my, uh, you know, in my day to day, I was at the store with my kids, and they were complaining that I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't stop talking about the racks at Home Depot. And he would just laugh and be like, I know I, I miss it, too, you know? And I was like, you know, we we were so fortunate to work for a company like that and, and a company that had, you know, the resources that they had. And, um, and we were just so fortunate to work with great people and learned so much that we're like, you know what? We we could do this on our own. We could. Right. Uh, we know enough that we could really start this on our own. We we know all of the, you know, the vendors and, you know, a lot of the players in the game still. And we, um, you know, we could just start on our own and, and we, um, we we decided to pull the trigger about 13 months ago and, and jump all into this, you know, and, um, and it's been a wild ride, you know, we're, we're we're new at business ownership. Um, so we're, you know, we're, we're leaning on a lot of our mentors that we've had along the way trying to, you know, so many people were grateful for that have been helpful to us. Um, so it's been a it's been a wild ride. I was just, um, telling, uh, I had lunch with someone yesterday, and I was like, you know, that first year was tough. You know, it was slow and it was hard to get it rolling. But, you know, recently we've we've noticed that the ball is rolling. Now we're catching a little bit of steam and we're very excited. Good.
Ben Hopkins
[00.05.34]
Yeah. Well they you know, they say, uh, you know about that with entrepreneurs and business. They're like the knowledge is rarely the. The limiting factor, right? It's usually the doing the the taking the first step that the making that leap. And sometimes people just say, oh, I need to learn more. I need to learn more. I need to learn more. Know you need to learn enough and then go,
Justin Sanders
[00.05.53]
yeah, that was fully prepared. You just got to jump in. And that's that's what made us do this 13 months ago. Like he keep you know, he's saying, um, you know, we have all this knowledge and we keep talking about it and we're like, man, that's we'd hate for this to go to waste. We don't want this to be useless knowledge. You know, it's an important part of, uh, supply chain. And, um, you know, it was either him or I were like, let's just do it. We're just doing it. Let's come up with a name. Let's get a logo going. Let's just file for it. We'll, we'll, we'll we'll stumble along the way. We'll figure it out. That's for sure. We have the aptitude to do it. We have the willpower and the knowledge behind us. And like you said, all our resources and connections that we've developed over the years, uh, very much, you know, still in tune with us on LinkedIn and, you know, other other networks and, uh, personal relationships. So we stay in touch with. So we're just like, yeah, we're going in, we're just jumping all in, and here we are.
Bryan Greenwood
[00.06.42]
Well, yes, I love to hear that. Sometimes I'm nervous. Sometimes when someone hears that, I don't want to think that, you know, we've been in the game for only 13 months, I know. Right? And so I'd say together collectively in uh, and just racking itself, we've got about ten years experience and then, you know, a um, more, uh, tenure in, uh, experience and logistics as well. So, uh, so, I mean, we just we come from that background of warehousing and, um, pallets and, and shipping and freight and that's just that's our wheelhouse. So, um, so I, you know, lately when people ask me how long I've been open, I quietly say 13 months, right? But I am proud that we're still rolling and we're, um, and like I said, we're just now getting hot, so it's exciting.
Justin Sanders
[00.07.23]
Yeah. Well, it just it just has your name on it now. Somebody else's name for for a decade. The only difference now is it's just your name on it. That's
Bryan Greenwood
[00.07.30]
right. And you and you directly.
Ben Hopkins
[00.07.32]
So. All right, so let's get in. Let's get into the warehouse world a little bit. When you're talking about racking and you're talking about storage, a lot of ops leaders out there in the industry, I know, because I hear from a lot of them are like, man, we're just always out of space. We're always out of space. You hear that from warehouses everywhere. But. The counterargument of that is maybe you are out of space, but maybe you're also just not optimizing very well in the facility that that you have. So what have you guys seen going out there and facilities and warehouses in terms of that? I mean, are they really out not out of space or are you like, no, you know, you just don't know how to optimize. And if you did that, if you had some help doing that, you'd be in a much better position. What do you what do you guys see it?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.08.22]
Well, I'll tell you, I love hearing that. You know, when they when they need more space, that means they're busy and they're growing. And I always say that first, you know, whenever I hear someone or they're frustrated, they're like, man, you know, I'm I got, you know, I need more space. I've got this product, I've got more orders this and that. You know, the first thing I do is I go into, hey, you got a great problem here. You know, I want to lift them up, you know, to let them know that this is a good problem to have. And then, um, you know, that that there can be a couple of different things there. They might literally be outgrowing that space and have to move. Um, or if we walk in, it's, you know, someone, you know, three operations managers ago, uh, did the layout and, you know, he just put something together real quick and didn't really scale it to grow. So, uh, so what we've seen is, uh, is a little bit of a mix of that. Um, a lot of times you can, um, you can find some space, you know, some either some vertical space or, um, or some some kind of space with the, you know, the power equipment. Your aisles need to be ten foot. Do they need to be 12 foot? Um, you know, what kind of power equipment are you using? Um, so it's it's a little bit of both. I'd say that I'm seeing it pretty evenly. Uh, both. And and like I said, it's very, very exciting to hear that kind of stuff.
Ben Hopkins
[00.09.33]
Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. Growing pains are always nice, right? Um, a lot of, you know, some people want to. They save it to the very end. So their operational efficiency is really hindering their their workflow to the point where they don't have, you know, they're thinking about moving into a larger warehouse or something, but in reality, they really might not need that. And they can get this thing done. They can get. I mean, that's that's expensive to relocate and who knows what the new leases will be. Um, but really just squeezing out every bit of square inch you can or your cubic volume out of your current warehouse is where you want to look first. And not a lot of people think that there's a lot that can be done with that. And just like you said, I mean, that could have been three warehouse managers ago, or they moved into this facility that already had racking and their operational workflow wasn't the same as their the, you know, the existing tenant that was in that facility. So, you know, we get creative, we can go taller with the racks. Um, we can you know, there's there's a bunch of different solutions by narrowing the aisles as necessary. Um, I've even seen a warehouse where the, the, the racking was turned the wrong way. I mean, it's just it wasn't in line with their docks. And, you know, you can imagine the work around the operational workflow, uh, speed bump that that might have in place. Um, but, um, yeah, a lot of different things. We can do a lot of different solutions. Customers don't even realize that that there's those capabilities. I mean, there's high density systems as well that we haven't even talked about that we could even get into. And just not your just not oh, maybe the combination of selective rack and some sort of high density systems would, would be their solution. Yeah, and that's where I
Justin Sanders
[00.11.03]
get in there and walk it.
Ben Hopkins
[00.11.04]
Yeah, exactly. That's what I like. If you reach out to a tracking company, you're a warehouse manager or your office manager. You don't. You're not supposed to know all the latest and greatest technology or capabilities out there and racking and storage. That's that's our job, right? Like, so, like, reach out to us and we, you know, we we you didn't even know this was an option for you. But it is. Here you go. That type of thing. So I think, um, you know, people should take advantage of, of pros that know what is an option, what's not an option, what can be a solution and what they've seen out there. Other places are doing, they get vantage of that because, you know, you only work in your facility. You only know your four walls.
Justin Sanders
[00.11.41]
Yeah. Yeah, maybe maybe that's that's not the best way. And every, you know, and every every facility is different. Um, on what their needs and their, their so their solutions therefore would be different. That's one of the pages on our website that we offer is, uh, free optimization studies will walk your warehouse for and point out inefficiencies that we we might see. And again, they might have not considered it because they're thinking about moving out. I mean, if they can think about just spending a little bit of money to, to stay where they are, I mean, that's going to leave some bounds be better for them from a logistical standpoint to do that now, then maybe move later and then still might run into the same problem because they don't they didn't have somebody properly lay it out or I didn't have a proper, uh, study done.
Ben Hopkins
[00.12.24]
It's almost always cheaper to not drive when you look at occupancy costs and price per square footage. I mean, there are some advantages if you're talking geographically with logistics and the whole thing, but just pure space, just move to have more space if you can better maximize the building you're in, almost always is financially more advantageous to do that, at least at least in my experience. So, um, you know that definitely true on that. So and now we talked about,
Justin Sanders
[00.12.52]
um.
Ben Hopkins
[00.12.54]
Your customers and you mentioned some of your. Some of your customers. But who? I mean, who are your customers? I mean, are you in big time distribution centers, big, big type facilities, smaller type warehouses? You know, there there's a huge, uh, spectrum of types of warehouses and facilities that are out there. And then, you know, when you when you're dealing with them, like, who's your main POC is that the ops manager is the warehouse manager, or is it some type of facilities manager or maintenance manager or infrastructure. What who are you normally dealing with and what's your customer look like?
Justin Sanders
[00.13.30]
I'd say throughout our career it's been, you know, we've talked to just about anybody. The warehouse is kind of a funny place because, you know, one warehouse they're going to call, you know, this guy, the operations manager, and then another warehouse. He's the warehouse manager, you know, in another warehouse, you know, and all these guys, they do the same jobs. They just have different titles. Um, I've. I've seen the company. They have a procurement, um, a procurement manager where he just sits in the office and he orders everything that the warehouse tells him to order. Um, you know, that's the guy. So, uh, so that there's a lot of POCs out there, um, that that that we that we talk to, I'd say recently it's been, um. Owners. We just did a job in Jacksonville and I was just talking directly to the owner. He owned the company and and it was growing very, very cool job that we did. Um, I'd say it's it's, you know, recently with us, with Rhino, it's been like warehouse managers and, um, and people on the floor that are asking about, uh, space optimization. And, hey, what do you think is this, you know, um,
Bryan Greenwood
[00.14.34]
we have this material. Is this racking going to support our growth or scale for us to grow? Um, and then, um, so, yeah, I'd say warehouse managers most recently, but it could really be anybody. Like I said. And the owner of the company.
Justin Sanders
[00.14.49]
Yeah. Yeah, I think it depends on the company size to who you might be talking to. But, you know, when it comes to, uh, a target audience for us, I want to say everybody. Right.
Bryan Greenwood
[00.14.57]
Yeah. It's not the same, but,
Ben Hopkins
[00.15.00]
um, and which we will we've definitely we've we've definitely managed, um, very multi-phase complex, large build outs. Um, and then everything all the way down to. I need 2 or 3 uprights in my garage, you know, for to store my tools, you know, so, you know, and everywhere in between. And then you'll be talking to different levels of leadership along the way, probably, um, my kind of go hand in with the company size or what the what the company, uh, really is. But, um, yeah, I'll tell you, lately we've been we've really been pushing to develop relationships in the, um, commercial warehouse real estate or broker or the or the agents listing agents themselves, um, and assisting them with, uh, getting their tenants in and out. Really? Because whether they're going somewhere else or they're expanding or even downsizing, we can, you know, help facilitate that process. And and maybe it's maybe they don't need actual racking. They might just need the labor. They might just need to move, move without existing replace any damage, uh, that they have. Move it over here and set it up. Um, you know, a lot of different.
Justin Sanders
[00.16.02]
A lot of different, um, opportunities and, and customer types that we will, we will work with and go after. Really?
Ben Hopkins
[00.16.10]
Yeah. Yeah. And I, I second what you say. It can be confusing sometimes in this world because you said warehouse manager. Is it the operations manager. Is it the director. Is it the senior. Is it the. There's a lot of different the distribution, uh, there's a lot of different titles that ultimately sort of mean the same thing and do the same thing. So I think just figuring out who that is that you're directly with
Justin Sanders
[00.16.34]
the decision
Ben Hopkins
[00.16.35]
is, is important. Yeah. To understand that language now on your website. So I looked on your website, you have
Justin Sanders
[00.16.42]
um, a main tagline. And one of the main taglines that I thought was cool was strong, racking, smart solutions built for you. And to me, that implies a high level of
Ben Hopkins
[00.16.53]
custom ability. I don't really know if that's a word you have the ability to customize
Justin Sanders
[00.16.58]
a lot. Right.
Ben Hopkins
[00.16.59]
Like is that is that true of your of your services. I mean, are you are you going to the sites? I think you kind of mentioned this before, but you're going to the sites and offering custom solutions that are unique to that facility and not just, oh yeah, here's a here's a square box. Here's here's the racking and it kind of goes in type thing. Is that is that something that you guys are doing?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.17.20]
Yeah, absolutely. I know what Justin was saying before about the, um, about, you know, we'll walk the space with you and, um, and we really can customize the, um, you know, your warehouse, uh, for you, for what you're trying to do and, and for how you're trying to grow. And I want to say, Ben, thank you for doing your. You're doing your research on us, and. Yeah. Yeah. Did you like the website? I did, yeah. It was I thought it I thought it was good. I thought it was cool. I'll
Ben Hopkins
[00.17.46]
put it. I will put a link to it. Yeah, I'll put a link to it on
Bryan Greenwood
[00.17.48]
the on. Yeah.
Justin Sanders
[00.17.50]
In it a little.
Bryan Greenwood
[00.17.51]
Thanks. Yeah. It's it's growing but we um. Yeah I mean absolutely. We, um, you know, with, with our industry knowledge, um, we absolutely want to make it work for you and, uh, you know, we want you to have a, uh, efficiency. That's what. That's a main goal in the warehouse. You know, orders coming in and out. And time is money. So, uh, efficiency is is huge. So we want that warehouse to work for you and make sense.
Justin Sanders
[00.18.14]
So, yeah. And absolutely custom customization. That's our favorite. That comes back to the whole the building Legos and the nerdy kind of thing. Right. I love doing that. Um, and, you know, we can do this remotely too. It can be anywhere in the US if especially if we have a building drawing, a layout drawing or an arsdale. Um, you know, we can have our, our, our drafting partners, um, lay out the racking in accordance to what they need. And, you know, I've, I've a lot of fun doing that, too. Um, so, you know, doing the 3D modeling and superimposing the type of racking solutions that might be best suited for them, but, uh, yeah. I mean, of course, if a customer has a list of material and just sends us, hey, it's just, you know, this is what we need. We know we're doing the install ourselves. We'll send in our truck to pick it up. You know, we'll we'll definitely do that as well too. Right. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, definitely to me from Mike, customisation is hugely important for warehouse structure and space in 2026 and beyond because there's so much there's so much variability in the supply chain, you know, in and out. And customer demand is changing and always bringing in new types of products that you gotta you you really need to have been type variation. I think the days are just, you know, square regular warehouse racking. You know, it might be dying out a little bit, obviously for some products in some companies that that makes sense, right. If they have. But I think a lot of them are like, no, we need a lot of customization and variation because that's our business, that's our operation. It runs that way. It is not cookie cutter. So our facility must match kind of how our OP runs. So it's really cool to hear that you guys are not only willing to do that. You love doing that. You're excited. Absolutely. And it's a good point. Good selling feature.
Ben Hopkins
[00.19.58]
Cool. All right. So let let. So pretend I'm, uh, I'm an office manager, and I decide that I'm going to work with rhino racking, so I'm ready. I'm ready to go all in. Like, what is it? What does it look like? Taste like? Smell like for me? Like what is the implementation phase? What can I expect? And, you know, are there things that I can do ahead of time to make things run smoother and help, help you guys? Do you do your job on your end? What what what can I expect and what's it like for me?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.20.33]
Yeah. You know, that's a great question. And um, and I'd say the, the biggest thing to expect is the communication. You know, we, we come from a background in, um, you know, project management and oversight and, um, and, you know, um, communicating is just the biggest part of this whole thing. You know, we we want to let you know what to expect. So and that and that'll change a little bit from project to project. It depends on if you're buying new or used or if we're building an entire system. You know, we have to fabricate the material and all that. So it can really depend. But when you know, when the when the project is about to start, you know, we're going to have a good idea of a lead time on, uh, material and then labor, and then we'll have a good scope for you. So, um, so, I mean, once we pull the trigger and we get the green light, we, you know, we're going to stay in constant communication with you. You're going to know what to expect. Uh, you might even not answer my calls a couple times because you'll be like, hey, you know, you told me yesterday, I know you're getting delivered on Friday. You know, I'll be like, okay, I'm making sure you guys are going to be there 2:00, you know? So, um, so, I mean, we're just going to stay in constant contact with you, and, I mean, your their time is important. So we we want to make sure they know what to expect.
Justin Sanders
[00.21.42]
Yeah. Yeah. The timeline is definitely important. Um, yeah. I think the design phase is is the beginning. Let's figure out what the customer needs, what they want. Um, are there any kind of pain points? You know, figure out what the scope is initially. Right. And then we'll we'll draft up a proposal for them with, uh, with a timeline, like he's saying. To what? What the lead time of the material is what the truck load schedule is, when the installers will be there. How long is that going to take? Um, is there any requirements of the customer needs to do before we get there, such as? You know, it depends on if we're if they're currently operating or, you know, this is a new build out. Right. That's going to that's going to depend widely wildly what the, um, you know, delivery and installation schedule looks like. But, uh, we're super flexible and we build it around whatever the customer's current operational needs are. Like I said, if they're currently operating or if they're moving into a free and clear building, I mean, well, that's just that's pretty, you know, straightforward. But if there's currently operating and loading trucks in and out of there every day, we'll come up with, uh, maybe, maybe something like, uh, a phase bi phase build out, but. Um, really, whatever they need. And, uh, excited to do it. Yeah, I would think. I, I, I think I'm correct on this. I guess it's probably easier for you guys if it's a brand new building. That's not no one's operating in. You just go in, you have free reign in there. But I think that's not always the reality. I think a lot of times people are adding on and they're expanding and you kind of have to work around ops because that's
Ben Hopkins
[00.23.10]
just the way that it is. But is that, you know what? What type of challenges does that provide for you if you're having a workaround? Ops I mean, is it is it workable or is it manageable? I mean, do you ever run into disagreements or hiccups like, you know, all that or no, we're good. I separated
Justin Sanders
[00.23.28]
there's frustration patient. Yeah. Like where I'm
Bryan Greenwood
[00.23.32]
there's frustrations with it, as you can imagine. But that's just a matter of, you know, managing those those frustrations, whether it's our guys or their guys we've gotten into, um, you know, some, uh, some heated matches, uh, in the past in our career with, uh, you know, it's the the building guys. They're in our way or the, you know, the the, um, you know, the, uh, the utilities guys here. Why are we here? He's in my way. And I get a call from my installer. Um, so a lot of our job is, um, it's just kind of managing, um, emotions and managing people and managing, like. Hey. Okay, guys, I understand that, you know, they're in your way. That slows you down. I understand. Let me make a call. Um, so it's really just understanding people, and, uh, and we're all in the warehouse to work together, so we have to find a way to do that. And that's what me and Justin are pretty good at, kind of taking the reins on that and, uh, and making us all work together. Well, you know, I've had, like I said, we've had some screaming matches in the warehouse where, um, you know, somebody, you know, somebody thinks is their warehouse and, you know, it's their space, but we all have to work in there. So, uh, it's just not knowing what to expect, and. And none of that comes really from surprise, either. You know, if we're walking into that project, we know that, okay, we're gonna we, you know, in our experience, we know to expect this or this. You know, these things might happen because we've seen it happen. So we, you know, none of it's really a surprise. It'd be tough. It'd be tough to surprise us now because we've seen quite a bit.
Ben Hopkins
[00.24.59]
Well, you know, you you you work with, uh, you work with a big time, huge conglomerate company that's been doing this forever. And then you have an issue. They're gonna be like, that sucks. That sucks for you. Sorry. We're a huge company. Right,
Justin Sanders
[00.25.12]
right. But, you know, you work with a small company startup who's trying to grow and everything. They're very, very receptive to everything that you have to say and moldable and everything. So I think there's certainly an advantage to that. No, I'm maybe I shouldn't put maybe I shouldn't paint that picture for big companies out
Ben Hopkins
[00.25.28]
there. Right. It's in the podcast. I'm never going on that show. You
Bryan Greenwood
[00.25.31]
just. Yeah. Hey hey hey.
Justin Sanders
[00.25.34]
Right. You just call me out. But I think. I think it's just human nature. I think there's a little bit of that that happens with anything. You know? The bigger you are and the the farther removed you are, the less kind of sensitive you are to a warehouse manager's concern or an obsolete concern. But if you're if you're not, if you're still very closely connected with that, then you know that. And this is a big part of what we have to do. So um,
Ben Hopkins
[00.25.58]
yeah, I appreciate that. So let me ask this question because talk about steel. Right. So like racks made out of steel, uh, you know where. Not customer facing. Right. So I'm talking like supplier facing. When you guys are talking about your suppliers in that side of your operation, like where where I mean, where do you get the steel. What's the lead time for steel? How volatile are the prices on it? Because I've got some history with that. I bought some steel and you know, we had to lock in a a low price very early in advance because it's because it could change. So tell me about that side of your business. Like where are you getting it all. How do you get it? And what should people know about the supplier facing part of Rhino racking without revealing all of your all your secrets?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.26.49]
Yeah, I was going to say I'm not I'm not falling for that. But I can tell that my in general. Uh, but no, we we have, you know, we've, we've been in the industry for so long, we've developed, um, these relationships with, um, with vendors and suppliers and, um, and, and that really gives us buying power. You know, we, uh, you know, these vendors and suppliers are, are selling this stuff to us. A, you know, a really low cost. You know, they they, um, they're they want to support us. They like what we're doing. They they like us. They like our story. Um, so that goes a lot of good buying power, you know, just. And I have noticed that our, our rates are our, um, our, our are really good. Um, compared to the, the competition, you know, we've we've had some customers that are like, hey, you know, you're really close on this or hey, you know, your price is better, but your lead time was a little higher. Um, you know, so we're getting great feedback on our on our pricing, uh, which makes us feel good that we're, you know, we're younger company, but we're able to compete with the bigger guys, you know, the bigger fish in the pond. So, um, but yeah, we, you know, we've we've built those relationships. That's where it comes from. So we just have, um, you know, a few suppliers that we've used for years and years and, uh, and we, um, and they, they, they help us out with new or used material. Um, there are goes to, um, you know, suppliers.
Justin Sanders
[00.28.09]
So we have, um. Yeah. Just like you said, it's really all the relationships that we've built over the years that we've stayed connected with. Um, especially when it comes to our material suppliers. And the lead times can be different depending on, of course, you know, the system that, that or the solution that we're going for here. Right. I mean, our selective ballot rack, generally we have all of the standard like sizes available to ship with, you know, by within a week, I would say. I mean, all all of your new selective standard that people are going to use is readily available at any given point. Um, but cantilever racking, you know, my that some of that may not be in stocks with some of our suppliers. We have a plethora of them. We can lean on them just like he said, getting the feedback from our customers. That's something that we really do every time we want to know, we want to keep our pencil sharp. It's not always price. Like he said, it could be, uh, it could be lead time. And I need to know that if it's a cantilever job and, you know, I might have told him, you know, for eight weeks or eight, 12 weeks or whatever, and they're getting it over here for somewhere else. Well, I didn't even think to use my other supplier, maybe because the price was right, but, um. Yeah. Generally, you know, I would say it depends on the system and the size of the order, but, um, yeah, like I said, the selective stuff that's, that's, that generally doesn't fluctuate at all as far as lead time, I'm finding. And since we've been in the industry, really when it comes to the new and used a lot of our, we have so many other dealers and partners, really our competitors, um, that we can lean on and work with and use as an extension of, you know, their used inventory as well. So, um, you know, it's just a matter of, uh, you know, there's timing when it comes to use, I would say new is always on stock. Um, and then cantilever that can be, that can that can vary that. But that might follow the steel trend I would say a little bit more. If we're talking about cantilever versus selective.
Ben Hopkins
[00.30.00]
Yeah. And I would think that the use racking business is probably like you never know like you said the the timing a site liquidate they they move it around. I mean it's always moving around. I mean that is happening. But you just don't know. You know you have to kind of have to get lucky on the timing sometimes when. When it comes to that. So that's a that's an interesting market. Probably a different discussion for a different day.
Justin Sanders
[00.30.23]
Okay. So
Ben Hopkins
[00.30.25]
you use rocking market that's out there. They exist. So yeah. Cool. Now let me ask you this guys let me ask you this question. And this is kind of just your opinion right. So not necessarily we're not really experts on this, but we are speaking in the microphone. So that makes us an expert right. There you go okay. That's a that's a joke. So what do you think about and and do you kind of have any concerns with the rise of sort of non-standard type storage, things like cube storage and, you know, VMs and all these things that are storage inside facilities. But they're not they're not really traditional racking, right? They're not traditional racking or traditional steel. Like, what do you think about that? I mean, you worry about that kind of encroaching in on what you're trying to do over the next 5 to 10 years, or you just say, we can't control what happens over there, but we're going to focus on our area. What do you think about some of that other stuff that's coming
Bryan Greenwood
[00.31.21]
online? Yeah. I mean, we we keep our, you know, we keep our ear close to the ground on that stuff. We want to be, you know, knowledgeable and aware of what's going on in our industry. And we've noticed those kinds of, uh, changes, um, you know, and new players coming into the game. Um, I'd say to answer your question, I don't I mean, I don't really see the traditional racking changing. I mean, it's big, it's heavy duty. It's, um, you know, it's sturdy. It's, um, I think it's going to be around for a long time, and it lasts, you know, it lasts a long time. So, um. But, I mean, that doesn't go to say that we're not going to also shift, you know, and change with the industry. You know, we're not going to be stuck in our old ways and, um, and push, you know, and push a dinosaur on you if it's not needed. You know, we're going to stay current on what's out there and offer you the best, um, you know, the best solution for your space. So, um, I think the, I think the, the acting, the, the heavy duty stuff is sticking around. I don't think it's going anywhere, but I think we're going to probably add a little bit to it and just and I are excited to learn more about that stuff and, and have that to offer down the road.
Justin Sanders
[00.32.27]
Yeah. Yeah, I definitely think there's always going to be a market for the selective rack and the cantilever and the high density solutions, the static racking. So to call other than pushback, I can't really call that static I guess or pallet flow. But um. Yeah. When it comes to I will say, you know, we can see that in the industry it's, you know, more and more of that as the new, you know, sexy topic of, of racking is all the robotics and automation and, um, you know, Codex this year is very heavily a very heavy on the, on, on the um, robotics, robotics stuff in the new, in new innovations of the industry. Right. So all that's exciting. I'm, I love to see where it goes. We'll definitely, like you said, we'll we'll adapt with the market. But I think that there's still just such a strong foundation, uh, of what? Of what we have already when it comes to like, the selective world that there will always be, um, always be a need for that, at least for a long time before the rest of it catches on. And, you know, there's drawbacks. There's trade offs with all of the all of, you know, the the robotics and the automated, um, storage solutions and, yeah, issues of mechanical breakdowns or failures or what have you, the conveyors and a lot of maintenance on those types of systems too. But I can totally see I definitely see how they're necessary. And um, places like, you know, Amazon for, for instance. Uh, sure. They have the they have the. Little pallet robot pallet move, picks up pallets and puts them in the. Puts them in the bin location.
Ben Hopkins
[00.33.51]
Yeah I think I think I agree with you though. I mean I you know, if you if you were to go, if you were to pick out 20 random warehouses on Google Earth and you went into them, you went inside of them, you would probably see a couple that have some of that high tech stuff that you see at mode X and Brown, but then most of them would probably just be just normal. I mean, it's like some in there, but it's just like normal warehouse. It looked like a normal warehouse, normal operation, a little bit over here. But I think I think we're a ways away from just that high tech stuff taken over wholesale and fully blacked out warehouse and robot and the whole thing. I think that's a good a good vision, but I think it's farther away than people may think. Most of what I see is just is basic blocking and tackling with with some of the other stuff mixed in a little bit. So I think racking, still racking is here to stay for for a while, you know, not not really worried about it going away anytime soon. Right. All right. So I gotta ask you about this. I got to ask you about the rhino because Rhino looks cool. It looks hot, you know. Yeah. You should have shown me before the show. It's a sharp logo. Tell me who. Who came up. Who came up with the logo? What's the backstory of the rhino? Racking. How did it come to be? And, you know, like what? You know how. How's, uh, how's your swag game been at your company? T shirts and hats and stuff? Because I like it. Looks cool.
Justin Sanders
[00.35.14]
Thank you, thank you. And I'll tell you, we'd probably be in business for for 14 or 15 months if we hadn't argued so much on the logo. No. It was it was a fun process to come out of it and to create something that was ours. We, um, had to be completely candid with you. I was looking up like strong animals, like, you know, lion bear. Um, uh, I can't remember what else was on there, but, like, strong, you know, I wanted a, you know, we were brainstorming about, you know, an animal that conveys strength. And then when we heard Rhino, it was just. That's like a strong armored animal. Like the. Mhm. Um, we could have a lot of fun with that. And um, and so when we, when we heard Rhino and then wracking a little bit of the, uh, alliteration there with, you know, it sounds good together. Um, so, so we got really excited when we, uh, we put that together that that just kind of came to us. Like I said, we were brainstorming different strong animals, and then, um, and then the logo was fun. I mean, we we just did a bunch of different AI revisions over and over again. It was we're like a kids and candy store. And we were like, hey, I sent him a picture of, hey, what do you think of this? Hey, what do you think of this? And we ended up finding this one right here. AI generated this, uh, kind of, um, general idea, and then, uh, just. And I made some tweaks to it and modified its original one. Uh, I got three horns, didn't it?
Bryan Greenwood
[00.36.43]
Three horns. Right. And Justin was like, hold on. He he's like, I gotta Google whatever I know. Looks like
Justin Sanders
[00.36.47]
you're right. I'm like, yeah, we don't want to be clowns out there. Uh, see? Oh, we took this one right here that I, um. And then we ended up kind of modifying a little bit, but we appreciate that. And we've heard that feedback that a lot of people do like. Uh, the logo. And we've got some some swag. I made little basketballs with our logo on them. Those were a big hit. Uh, we want to do hockey pucks. Well, Tampa's a big, uh, hockey town. Uh, you know, we're pretty serious about hockey around here. We want to do a hockey, you know, hockey pucks and pass those out. I think those would be cool. Um, we don't want to talk about this past hockey season, but maybe next season. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. I'll get going again. But, uh. But yeah, the swag has been so much fun in the shirts and hats and, um, we've got, we've got yard signs that we put out in industrial plazas and stuff with our, you know, our company info on them and, um, talk about some other stuff too. Um,
Bryan Greenwood
[00.37.38]
but yeah, the swag part is, is so much fun. You could spend a lot of money. Yeah.
Justin Sanders
[00.37.42]
Um, well, I'm. I'm waiting on the. I'm waiting on the next tattoo. I want to see a neck tattoo with. Well, I know on there, the next time we do a podcast episode,
Bryan Greenwood
[00.37.52]
we can probably come up with some, you know, uh, some kind of temporary, uh, tattoos. Oh, we can
Justin Sanders
[00.37.57]
definitely do that. Yeah.
Bryan Greenwood
[00.38.00]
Yeah. The first person to get a rhino wracking tattoo. It's. They get featured on your website. They get all kinds of. All right.
Ben Hopkins
[00.38.08]
To see somebody out there get a rhino tattoo.
Justin Sanders
[00.38.11]
Yeah. It's been it's been been fun to play with a little bit too. We've been talking about, you know, wraps, you know, potentially down the road we'll get wraps on our trucks and things like that. So I don't think the big badge logo is is great for that kind of. Um, I would probably just use the, the, the word rhino racking like across the windshield, the back windshield or something. But yeah, it's been a lot of fun to play with. That's probably my favorite part of the job, but that's fine. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it, I get it,
Ben Hopkins
[00.38.41]
I get it. No. No harm, no foul. Right I don't I don't feel welcome. I really appreciate you guys. Appreciate you guys hearing on the podcast. I enjoyed chatting with you and learn more about your company and everything. It's very interesting. I love to see new startups making waves in the industry. So where can people find out more about you? Um, you know, what are you working on for 2026 and beyond? Well, I just want to say we're very grateful to you, Ben, for, uh, reaching out to us and allowing us to share your platform with you. So thank you so much. And and all the positive feedback is, is very appreciated, too. I mean, we're, um, you know, we're we're building this company very carefully, and, and we're building a, you know, among, you know, people like you in this industry, you know, like minded individuals. So, uh, I just want to say thank you for, for giving us the platform and having us on. Um, yeah. We,
Bryan Greenwood
[00.39.29]
uh, our website, like you said, that's, uh, that's the work. You know, we're we're constantly adding to it's rhino tracking solutions.com. It's a little long. I think Justin was saying rhino tracking.com was taken. So, uh, domains
Justin Sanders
[00.39.42]
were. Yeah, that was the solution.
Bryan Greenwood
[00.39.44]
Oh, it's a little long. Rhino Tracking solutions.com. That's our website. And um, and we're on LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook. Um, and someone was telling me to get on TikTok too, but that's, that's a different animal that I'm not familiar with. I gotta learn that one.
Justin Sanders
[00.40.00]
Yeah. I'm not around for that. Yeah. Yeah, right. I don't know. I don't know if we have a whole bunch of content put on TikTok that would be fresh, but if. Yeah, if we can, we'll drop all those links for you. Like I said, uh, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, we're on those platforms. We're trying to, um, just get out and spread, you know, let people know that we're here and we're we're eager to get busy and get to work for them. So, um, we're we're trying to be on, uh, as many platforms as we can soon to be TikTok. Yeah. Coming
Bryan Greenwood
[00.40.28]
soon from 2026. That's something that's going to
Justin Sanders
[00.40.32]
be the big waves that we make this year. We're gonna be on TikTok.
Ben Hopkins
[00.40.36]
Well, cool. Well, great. Great meeting you guys. Best of luck. Best of luck to you in the future. Uh, you know, I hope I hope you do lots of good jobs and in Florida and Georgia and start expanding everywhere and hope to see that, you know, you can get guys, I appreciate it. And thanks again.
Bryan Greenwood
[00.40.52]
Great. Thanks, man. Bye, guys.
Ben Hopkins
[00.40.57]
Thanks again to Rhino Racking for appearing on the Warehouse Underground podcast. Really good guys. Reach out to them today if you have racking needs, they definitely can help you and I'm excited to see their growth in the industry from here forward. As the warehouse underground goes. Please sign up for the community. If you've not done so, it's free at the warehouse. Underground comm. In the community, we have message boards, networking resources, and some live events that we've already done, and we have some cool live events that we're working on in the future you'll want to be a part of. Also, check out the other show I do with my co-host, Jordan. It's called the Tiger Team Show, a little different from this podcast. It's all about life and warehouses, DCS and FCS from the employees perspective, but with a lot of wit and humor and sarcasm draped all over it. If you work in that environment and you understand what it's like, check that show out for some light hearted comic relief. We think that you will really like it. As this podcast goes, I will see you guys next week for another episode. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
