OUTLETThe Official Reece Customer Update

We welcome your feedback so please send any comments by e-mail to outlet@reece.com.au or by fax to (03) 9274 0131.

ISSUE#124 April 2012

We stand behind (and in front) of the products we sell

EasterDuring the Easter period all Reece branches will be closed on Good Friday (6 April 2012) and Easter Monday (9 April 2012).

We’ll be trading as normal on Easter Saturday (7 April 2012).

Anzac DayAnzac Day is on Wednesday 25 April, 2012 all branches will be closed.

Call your local Reece branch or phone 1800 032 566 for more information. If you require emergency after-hours service call 1800 067 127.

The long, long weekend With the Christmas break a distant memory, Easter is a chance to grab a last bit of sunshine, and give yourself a break. But of course we’re going to work through just in case you need us. Here are our trading hours for Easter and Anzac Day.

We’ve extended our Product Quality Guarantee to cover our trade VAP products and to help protect your reputationSee page 2 to find out more

www.reece.com.au/outlet2

A new pop-up restaurant is being built for this year’s Melbourne Food and Wine festival. It’s a restaurant with a few differences. Such as the plumbing.

Greenhouse Restaurant is the brainchild of artist/gardener/environmental designer/eco-entrepreneur/experimental plumber Joost Bakker, who is committed to sustainability. Everything in the restaurant, from chairs, tables and eating utensils, to the structure itself, is recyclable.

Even the urine.

Joost is working with Dr Steve Cumming, the inventor of the dual-flush toilet for Caroma, to build and install eight urine-diverting toilets, including waterless female urinals. The idea is to collect 5,000 litres of urine, which will be trucked to a farm at Daylesford and drilled into the

soil to fertilize a new crop of mustard seed. It’s the oil from mustard seed that will power the cutting-edge generators providing electricity for the restaurant. The technology is actually pretty simple. Urine is collected through the waterless toilets,

and stored in a tank before being shipped out to the mustard seed farm, to return, eventually, in the form of more mustard seed oil.

Like they say, what goes around, comes around.

‘Urine is incredible for nitrogen,’ Joost says. ‘In Melbourne’s waste water, 70% of the nitrogen content, which is problematic in treating it, comes from urine — which only accounts for 1% of the volume. It’s so valuable, you only need 25 people to provide fertiliser for a hectare of crop. So think about Australia’s 20 million people providing fertiliser — think about the world’s 7 billion!’

That’s a lot of liquid nitrogen. And in his new restaurant Joost is just starting to tap into it.

That’s why at Reece, we’re all about providing the best products and service so your business can prosper and your reputation is always protected.

We take a total approach to quality and support of our products by confidently standing behind them. We audit our suppliers and their manufacturing processes. We conduct independent product testing. And on top of this, we let you now exactly what our warranties are and offer a comprehensive after sales service through Reece Customer Care.

We call it the Reece Product Quality Guarantee.

You probably remember we introduced it last year to cover all our bathroom value added products (VAP), well the great news is we’ve now extended it to our trade VAP products, including brands like Auspex, BIGDOG and Dura. This means you now get industry leading warranties on all plumbing and bathroom VAP products ranging from from 12 months up to a lifetime in some cases - giving you absolute peace of mind. And of course, to qualify

for these warranties, the products must be installed by you, a licensed plumber.

If you’d like to know the type and length of a warranty that applies to a particular product, you can find it on the relevant product page of our website. The full warranty details are contained in our “Warranty” sheets that can be downloaded from those product pages.

Reece Product Quality Guarantee - just one more way we working to protect your business and your reputation.

We stand behind (and in front) of the products we sell

A wee change can make a big difference

There’s no better feeling than standing back, admiring your work and knowing you’ve just finished another a quality job.

Radical plumbing in a new eco restaurant.

For more information on the Reece Product Quality Guarantee visit reece.com.au/productquality

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Auspex Radiant Underfloor Heating is one of the healthiest and most efficient ways to heat a home. Supplied with all of the components in one box, its been specifically created for plumbers. Visit www.reece.com.au/auspex-radiant to find out more

The luxury of underfloor heating

GET READY TO BE FLOORED

www.reece.com.au/outlet 3

The Crack

We’ve had nude bathing, nude weddings, nude parachuting. Now there’s nude plumbing.

A new company in South African bills itself as ‘the world’s only all-naked service company’. The Natural Cleaning Co offers a range of services including plumbing. Indeed plumbers are one of the most popular requests. No surprise there!

The business was founded recently by Jean-Paul Reid, who was struggling to find work as an accountant in a country with a 23.9% unemployment rate. His company offers housekeeping, accounting, legal, computing and trade services such as plumbing either topless or fully nude, depending on the client’s request.

Prices range from 175 rand ($22) per hour for ‘semi-naked services’ to 450 rand for professionals like lawyers, accountants and plumbers. (We’re not sure how we’d feel about advice we received from a naked lawyer.)

Of course, if you’re thinking of having a crack at nude plumbing there are one or two unique OH&S considerations. And remember, plenty of sunscreen.

Naked ambition

The average length of a player’s career in the NRL is just 43 games over three or four years. But for most young guys starting out, what happens after they leave the game is the last thing on their minds.

For a few years they’re heroes, playing the game they love, earning good money. But apart from the lucky few who go on to coach, or work in the media, it’s not a career. And when their fifteen minutes of fame comes to a grinding halt, many players find themselves without the skills to earn a living.

“Beyond the Tryline” is an NRL/NSW government initiative designed to help players moving into full-time training squads take-up apprenticeships, and stick with them. Players like Eels heavyweight

Justin Poore, who’s spending his time away from the paddock learning to be a plumber.

While plumbing lacks some of the glamour of rugby league, Justin reckons digging trenches is actually relaxing. ‘I’m lucky, I’ve got a brother who’s an engineer, another’s a plumber, the other’s a miner. So they all have respectful jobs and I’m just this football player. I sort of felt a bit of pressure to try and succeed in a trade and I was lucky enough to find a really good boss with flexible hours and I love it. I know exactly what I want to do after footy. I’ve done a whole year of my trade on site and I’m just about to start a drainage certificate at the Plumbers’ Association.’

So Justin will have something to celebrate after the game.

After the gameThe NRL “ Beyond the Tryline” Apprenticeship Program.

Carbon pricing is a key area of the government’s policy on climate change and is commonly being referred to as the “carbon tax”. The mechanism is designed to reduce the carbon output and reduce the current level of climate change by charging per tonne of carbon that is released into the atmosphere.

Whether you agree with it or not, it isn’t far away. The scheme is due start on 1st July.

We’ve started getting a number of customers asking how this will impact on their prices. While Reece as a company

needs to report on carbon emissions, in the first phase it’s unlikely we’ll be charged for carbon pricing as we’re not deemed as a liable business for carbon pollution. However a number of our suppliers will be directly impacted. At this stage there are still too many variables to give exact guidance on how our suppliers will be impacted as they are currently working through their obligations and from there will determine the need to adjust their pricing.

Outlet will continue to keep you informed of any price changes on a monthly basis.

Carbon taxHOW WILL IT AFFECT YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS?

MY ACCOUNT.ANOTHER WAY REECE WORKS FOR YOU.www.reece.com.au/myaccountexplained

www.reece.com.au/outlet4

Outlet is a publication by Reece Pty Ltd (ACN 004 097 090) Copyright These materials are copyright. No part of them may be reproduced, adapted, translated or transmitted without the prior permission of the copyright owner, Reece Pty Ltd, except under any permitted circumstances set out in the Copyright Act 1968. Liability Reece makes no warranties with respect to any of the materials contained in this publication and Reece does not assume any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage which may arise from the use of, or reliance on, any information contained in this publication.

Outlet is printed on Monza Recycled which contains 55% recycled fibre (25% post consumer and 30% pre consumer) and 45% elemental chlorine free pulp. All virgin pulp is derived from well managed forests and it is manufactured by an ISO 14001 certified mill.

In The Pipeline Products for smarter plumbingPlumbing is changing, and there’s a lot more to it than pipes, trenches and taps. In The Pipeline keeps you up-to-date on a wide range of products.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of things plumbers have to think about on the job. So the easier a process can be, the better. One of those processes is identifying different types of pipes. And in these time-poor times, what better way to do it than with coloured pipes.

Main Price Changes For the full list of price changes or if you have any queries, please see your Reece Branch Manager or visit www.reece.com.au/outlet for further updates.

Supplier Products % Increase Date Effective

BRIVIS CLIMATE SYSTEMS Heating & cooling 2-4.5% 01 April 2012

CHRIS HUNTER SALES Inox products VAR% 01 April 2012

DECINA Bathroomware 0-3% 01 April 2012

ROCLA Piping products 5% 01 April 2012

AWARD BRANDS Bathroomware VAR% 01 May 2012

REHAU RAUTITAN platinum, red, green and lilac pipeREHAU now offers an alternative to the standard black pipe. The new Rautitan range comes in platinum, red, green and lilac, for cold water, hot water, rainwater and recycled water. This means plumbers can now confidently know they’re using authentic REHAU pipes.

Green and lilac pipe are now available in the full range of sizes from 16 to 63mm for rain and recycled pipe systems. Which is great for green buildings, and colour identification eliminates time and cost spent marking pipes with paint, stickers, sleeves, etc.

And the hot water red pipe is available in 16-25mm.

Features• Colourcodingmakespipeidentificationeasier.• Systemsare100%corrosionprooffortheharsh

conditions of recycled and rain water.• 25yearwarranty.

EXPANDING THE NETWORK NEW BRANCH

Glebe20 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037

Ph: (02) 9518 4596

Fax: (02) 9518 4032

Manager: Andrew Milbourn

RAPIDSTRUT THE QUICK FIX THAT WORKSFor more info on Rapidsrut and all the other products in the Walraven range visit www.reece.com.au