Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 9

76 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 Although strategic growth through acquisitions is a large part of RPI’s plan to meet customer needs, increase capabilities, and expand the company’s geographic footprint, there has also been continued organic growth within the enterprise. With close to 400 regular employees, RPI also relies on seasonal workers during peak times, which occur in December and again in May and June. When COVID related shutdowns started happening in the U.S. and Europe in 2020, the company saw a 70% drop in business product orders, due to cancelled trade shows and in person meetings. During this time there was also a noticeable drop on the consumer side, although it was shorter lived. Bellamy recounts, “By June, we were seeing an increase in the consumer intent work, along with the prosumer and the professional creator in their passion projects. We ended up being very busy as soon as we shut down.” As a technology-based company, RPI has hundreds of employees working in their manufacturing facilities, who are unable to work remotely. Keeping employees safe became a company wide effort, with new policies and procedures, along with sanitization and protection gear quickly becoming the new normal. “We are happy to say that those worked for us,” says Bellamy. “We did not have