There are many success stories out there, but Rick Johanneck’s story is truly one of an American Dream. It’s about starting from the scratch, working hard, building with your own hands and being driven by passion for perfection.

In 1995 Rick’s success story began with nothing but a dream to build his very own Rotational molding shop. What started as a modest 150 sq. f x 100 sq. ft shop in the Midlands of Minnesota, has now grown into state-of-the- art 240,000 sq. ft facility!

Otter Outdoors (ice fishing), Wave Armor (marine and water sports), Beavertail/DOA Decoys (hunting/waterfowl), and Rhino Tuff tanks (stackable storage systems) are all recognized as premium quality brands under one roof. In addition, Rick started a tooling shop named American Roto Tool where employees share 40 years of fabricating and 16 years of CNC machining rotomolding experience. Rick brought his custom molding business model on to a whole other level and has been able to provide 100+ jobs to develop and enhance the people of his community.Rhino became a respected member of the local chamber of commerce and actively participates in a variety of events. The company continues to expand and just recently built new additions for their Rhino and American Roto Tool divisions, and have two more in the planning stages.

Persistence and commitment for uncompromising standards are the primary rules for Rick’s success. His first brand started back in 1996. Otter Outdoors Legendary Sleds and Shelters remains a number one in the industry, and continues to deliver unmatched quality products.He has a passion for excellence and innovation, and hence he has been recognized as an innovator of the industry. Rick believes that, “to be a leader you can’t follow anyone’s steps and don’t settle for anything but the best.”A workaholic by nature, Rick still spends the majority of his time at the facility, passionate about his work he can be found on the shop’s floor training and creating new innovative products for his brands. At the rare times away from work he enjoys speed boating, driving motorcycles, and any kind of adrenaline injecting activities.

Feeling empowered and eager to bring new products and improve the existing ones, Rick decided to start his Rhino Rotational molding company. He saw a need for new innovative approaches and design in the rotational molding industry to simplify and make manufacturing processes more efficient. Rick has been and is continuously working towards improving the process, training and controlling the quality on all the levels of production, creating mold designs and offering innovative solutions, which all constitute as the main ingredients of the efficiency of Rhino.

“We are not just a manufacturer; we are an experienced partner. Our highly skilled Design and Production team can assist in every aspect of our customer project, from concept, tool design and fabrication to product manufacturing, warehousing and final distribution!” says Rick. “Unlike other plastic molding processes, rotomolding results in durable and flexible design parameters including big size hollow parts, high impact tolerance and consistent wall thickness.” Rotomolded products are used in a variety of industries such as agricultural, aerospace, marine industry, automotive, food service, medical and chemical industries, construction and other.

Rick and his team believe that there is always a room for improvement and are always collaborating with customers to find better, more efficient ways of producing parts. In an instance, one of their customers from the floor cleaning equipment industry came to Rick and his team with their own mold for production, and the team saw the opportunity to improve the mold design by eliminating many steel components. It resulted in lower cost efficiency for the customer and simplified molding process for our production team. “This is just one story of many that we troubleshoot with our customers on and offer them successful solutions,” adds Rick. Empowered by drive for excellence Rhino continues to lead the industry with its unique innovative perspective. “Our marine industry division represented by Wave Armor recently launched a new line of pwc ports, boat ports and accessories. Otter Outdoors introduced 4sizes of new rod boxes and multiple accessories. You can see more from our family of brands at exploreios.com,” adds Rick.