Cutting down on unsustainable wood
What if you could turn sustainably sourced softwood into hardwood and only be able to tell it apart from the price? This is exactly what entrepreneurs Scott Sargent and Stuart Prior have done — and they are ready to manufacture Rhino Wood’s modified wood for South Africa and beyond. The company is the brainchild of Scott Sargent (37) and Stuart Prior (29), who found a way to combine a wax waste product with plentiful softwood to replicate the properties of much less sustainable — and much more expensive — hardwood timber.
Having perfected their proprietary process, and with a few high-profile projects under their belt to prove the product, they have recently finished expanding their factory. They are ready to tackle the outdoor timber market, estimated to be around 5 000 cubic metres of wood per month in South Africa. Their aim is to conquer 20% of this market in the next three years.
Sargent (37) grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was an avid sportsman at his school, St Stithians College. His penchant for business shone through while studying towards his economics degree at the University of Cape Town. Scott was involved in a few small businesses that ranged from selling T-shirts to catering for hungry students. He moved back to Johannesburg in search of the next step in his entrepreneurial career, gaining extensive experience in the IT and art sectors, and building several businesses that combined asset registration and art market data with technology.
Prior (29) was also born i n Johannesburg, but attended boarding school in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. After completing a BCom at Rhodes University, he took up a position at the Bank of New York in London. In 2010 he returned to South Africa and joined the family business (wax processing), in which both his father and Scott’s father are partners. In 2011, when he and Sargent were developing the prototype for RMW, Stuart enrolled at the Gordon Institute of Business Science to study towards his MBA in entrepreneurship and further develop his business skills. Once he had completed this, Rhino Modified Wood was formally registered and both Prior and Sargent dedicated themselves full time to the business.
Prior and Sargent, while being involved with their families’ business, discovered that an unused wax that was being dumped into landfills could be filtered and re-engineered into a wax blend that had very special qualities. They later remembered an older technology for impregnating timber and how no one, to their knowledge, had done it with a high-melting-point majority wax blend. After months of research and development, adding an additional process of heating the timber under very specific conditions, they were able to produce the first prototype of what later that year won the WWF’s Climate Solver Award.
Hoping to become fully fledged green entrepreneurs, the pair established Rhino Modified Wood to commercialise the invention, and the product, manufacturing process and ingredients were patented. A dedicated manufacturing facility was then established in Johannesburg to service the local and international market. Approximately 100 000 square metres of their modified wood is currently used in a variety of construction applications, but the most popular application is decking material. The wood has been used in several major projects, including Matlonsana Mall in Klerksdorp, and Little Vumbura Plains Wilderness Camp in the Okavango Swamps of Botswana.
The vast majority of the decking, cladding and flooring wood market in South Africa is dominated by imported timbers, which are expensive and often come from endangered sources. Rhino Wood’s product has the same qualities as this imported hardwood: it is strong, hard, durable, low maintenance and is not recognised by woodborers and termites as a food source. However, it is much more sustainable and it is produced in a much more environmentally friendly way than other modified woods. It is also non-toxic and is disposable. “We have created a truly innovative product in a traditionally conservative industry,” says Sargent.
Beyond decking and cladding, Rhino Wood hopes to take advantage of other opportunities for its wood to be used in substructure, furniture, joinery and railway sleepers, to name but a few. The product is currently sold as a commodity, following a traditional model where the company manufactures and delivers to a merchant, who finishes the timber to the customer’s exact requirements. This commodity model means that the wood can easily be brought to international markets in the future.
Sargent knows that they have something good to offer. “By offering an alternative to tropical hardwoods and reducing the need to cut down natural forests we are blending business with offering a sustainable product that is better for all. That kind of mix makes one feel good about what one is doing.”
Find out more about Rhino Wood at www.rhinowood.co.za