MEAN WELL recently presented RS with market development funds intended to both further their successful partnership and support RS’ well-meaning corporate activities, the latter of which resulted in a generous $178,659 donation to The Washing Machine Project on behalf of RS.

FORT WORTH, Texas, August 28, 2023 - RS, a trading brand of RS Group plc (LSE: RS1), a global provider of industrial product and service solutions, is proud to announce that MEAN WELL has donated $178,659 to The Washing Machine Project on behalf of RS.

RS and MEAN WELL, a leading global supplier of standard power supply products founded on good intentions and fair and honest business practices, have been channel partners since 2011. In the years since, MEAN WELL became the bestselling power supply brand at RS.

MEAN WELL recently presented RS with a market development fund as a reward for its effective partnership and successful marketing activities. The size of the fund was based on the MEAN WELL market growth that RS had achieved and, in true MEAN WELL spirit, it was bestowed with the stipulation that while some of the funds be used to further accelerate MEAN WELL marketing and engagement activities, some should be donated to charity. RS chose its global charity partner, The Washing Machine Project, as the sole recipient of $178,659.

The Washing Machine Project is a global charity that developed an innovative, user-friendly, and off-grid manual washing machine designed to provide displaced and low-income communities facing humanitarian crises with a sustainable solution for maintaining healthy hygiene. The popular Divya 1.5 model has an 11-pound capacity, is capable of up to 500rpm, and is made of commercial-grade components to ensure operational durability. It also uses 50% less water, takes 75% less time than handwashing, and features an effective dewatering process that reduces drying times.

A whopping 70% of the world's population doesn't have access to electrical washing machines, and it takes an average of 20 hours a week, or two and a half full workdays, to wash a family's clothes by hand. This task often falls on women and girls, which has a negative impact on their ability to capitalize on and complete education opportunities. It often has a negative impact on local water supplies as well.

As of today, the Washing Machine Project has deployed more than 186 manual washing machines in 12 countries. These installations have saved more than 28,297 people from the back and joint pain and skin irritation caused by handwashing and, since a full cycle takes just 15 to 30 minutes, have provided women and girls especially with more time that could be spent earning a living or an education, which is a critical step toward achieving gender equity.

"We're very proud that MEAN WELL recognized us for the market growth we've achieved and rewarded us with a substantial investment in our marketing services and a profoundly generous donation to The Washing Machine Project," said Marie Dawson, RS Product Director, Americas. "RS, MEAN WELL and its Sustainable Development Group (SDG), and The Washing Machine Project share several core values; so, we're thrilled to contribute to the fulfillment of several of those — gender equality, clean water and sanitation, innovation, and responsible consumption and production — with this sizeable donation."

The $178,659 that MEAN WELL donated on behalf of RS will supercharge The Washing Machine Project's global impact. The funds will support the manufacture and distribution of 105 of its newest Divya 1.65 washing machines, virtually doubling the Project's global footprint and the number of displaced and low-income people served. Planned deployments will support families in Uganda that have fled neighboring countries, a school for street children in Nairobi, Kenya, and local homeless communities in California and Texas. The funds will also support critical research and development processes aimed at further improving the Divya series and helping establish small-batch production processes for Divya washing machines, which would be a game-changer given that every model built to-date has been assembled manually.

The MEAN WELL funds build upon almost two years of RS support for The Washing Machine Project. These efforts have separately generated more than $418,000 in fundraising and facilitated the donation of an abundance of critical machine components, the building efforts of more than 400 volunteers, and the professional support of more than 40 volunteers specialized in website design, legal issues, social media, marketing, data analytics, sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics.

"To mean well means to have good intentions, and that's our founding principle here at MEAN WELL," said Leo Cheong, General Manager, MEAN WELL USA. "So, it is our pleasure to partner with effective and ethical suppliers, to reward them for contributing to our continued success as well as their own, and to support their own good intentions, as we have through the donation that MEAN WELL recently made to The Washing Machine Project on behalf of RS."

RS has access to the entire MEAN WELL product portfolio, including power supplies, DIN-rail power supplies, DC-DC converters, inverters, power adapters, and battery chargers, and has more than 2,000 products in stock and ready to ship. For more information about MEAN WELL and the MEAN WELL products available at RS, please visit the embedded links, contact your local RS representative at 1.866.433.5722, or reach out to our technical product support team.

For more information about The Washing Machine Project, please visit https://www.thewashingmachineproject.org/.

About RS in the Americas
In the Americas region, RS stocks more than 250,000 industrial and electronic products from more than 700 trusted suppliers. These solutions cover categories extending from automation and control equipment to interconnect, passive, active, and electromechanical components and include more than 80,000 high-quality, competitively priced RS PRO products. For more information, please visit https://us.rs-online.com or connect with us via social media on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

About RS Group
RS Group plc provides product and service solutions that help our customers design, build, maintain, repair, and operate industrial equipment and operations, safely and sustainably. We stock more than 750,000 industrial and electronic products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provide a wide range of product and service solutions to 1.1 million customers.

We support customers across the product lifecycle, whether via innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing purchasing costs and optimizing inventory in the maintenance, repair, and operation phase. We offer our customers tailored product and service propositions that are essential for the successful operation of their businesses and help them save time and money.

RS Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with stock ticker RS1 and in the year ended 31 March 2023 reported revenue of £2,982 million.

For more information, please visit https://www.rsgroup.com/ or connect with us on LinkedIn or Twitter.