Rheem turns 100 this year, and the company celebrated in style on the AHR Expo show floor with a champagne, cake pops, and a brand-new tagline.
“The Rheem brothers started from very humble beginnings, making galvanized steel tanks in a small factory in a small town in California,” said Chris Peel, Rheem’s CEO. “And I’m fairly certain that if they were here today, standing in the audience, they would be very impressed with how much we’ve grown over the last 100 years.”
Speaking at a press conference at Rheem’s booth on February 11 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Peel chronicled the company’s laurels: 14,000+ employees, operations in 90 countries, and a full portfolio of HVAC, refrigeration, water heating, and pool heating equipment.
“But what I think they would be most proud of is the fact that we have preserved and protected the culture that they created this company,” he said. “It’s a culture based on innovation, integrity, collaboration, and a relentless focus on the success of our customers and our partners.”
A punchy video played higlights from Rheem’s century-long story, from black-and-white photos of the company’s early headquarters and employees to its technologies being installed and used in homes and businesses 100 years later.
Peel took the floor again, announcing another milestone for Rheem.
“Back in 2011 on this very stage, I made a commitment to out-invest and overinvest in green for the coming years,” he said. “We made a commitment to retool, redesign every product line that we make. We made a commitment to modernize and expand our factories. We made a commitment to build new factories, and we made a commitment to expand globally, and in the last 14 years, that’s exactly what we have done.”
In 2011, Rheem also rebranded with a new tagline, transitioning from “Relax, It’s Rheem” to “Rheem: A New Degree of Comfort.”
“And that has served us very well over the last 14 years, but as you just saw [in the video], next starts now, which means we need a new tagline,” Peel said. Rheem’s new slogan is “Rheem: Engineered for Life.”
No birthday celebration would be complete without cake — in this case, taking the form of cake pops — and a toast.
As servers emerged from the booth with loaded trays, Peel lifted a flute of champagne.
“To our founders,” he said. “To the last 100 years, and to what’s next for Rheem.”
The company’s new slogan is intended to be both aspirational and realistic.
“We’re ‘engineered’ — work that’s been accomplished, but work that continues in the future,” Alex Housten, chief operations officer at Rheem, told The ACHR NEWS afterward. “And ‘for life’? Everybody knows that real life happens — it’s not an ideal, test lab situation. So ‘Engineered for Life’ is our recognition that our products are durable, reliable, and go for the long run.”