For the Eames Plastic Chair by Vitra, Rent.Group has separated the base from the seat shell. A quick connector developed for the purpose separates the two with one click. Once separated, the chair can be stacked. This allows 800 chairs to fit on one truck. According to Rent.Group, the manufacturer fits around 250.
Katharina Döring, Managing Director of Rent.Group, shows the example in a BaselCircular video spotlight. With its transport trolleys and stacking system, the company says it saves up to 55 percent of truck volume and can triple the product life cycle. For customers, this also has a tangible economic effect.
Renting has to pay off
At Rent.Group, material can be rented for one day or for up to 60 months. Renting means keeping products in circulation and using them again and again. If that is not economically viable, it is very hard to make headway in the market. It is highly relevant to the company that the furniture is modular and that it has its own transport systems and packaging: this also saves storage space.
The chairs have specially made stacking caps. For the tables, the various table tops in the range can be placed on the same base.
Started 32 years ago
It began 32 years ago. Even then, the company looked at how to make products last as long as possible and how to simplify logistics. At the time, this was driven more by being able to deliver well to the customer with as little breakage as possible. It was not yet called circular economy. Today, Rent.Group has products that have been in its range for more than 32 years.
For Rent.Group, the work is not finished: the company keeps developing.
Alongside the example, BaselCircular lists three approaches for getting started: design products to be modular, meaning separable rather than permanently fixed, consider transport and storage early in the design, and examine rental instead of ownership models.
This is what the company lives off, says Döring: products that last a long time and reach customers in good quality.