Roca Corporacion Empresarial, a Spanish specialist in the design, production and marketing of bathroom, ceramic tiles, heating and air conditioning products, is paying special attention to the Middle East with an aim of increasing its market share, says Victor Schoone, Middle East export area manager.

“Although we have been targeting the architecture, construction and interior design sectors across the world, the markets of Europe and the Middle East have remained our main areas for business focus. Although the company has a worldwide presence in 80 countries spread across four continents, Roca is dedicating its efforts to fully explore the abundance of opportunities in this part of the world,” he explains.
This year Roca is celebrating the ‘Golden Marriage’ – the culmination of the company’s 50-year-old relationship with the Middle East.
“Obviously, the Middle East accounts for a major volume of Roca’s foreign trade. Every market here is important. We have no favourites as we share a unique relation and accord special treatment to every individual market,” he adds.
Roca has been associated with some of the bigger names in luxury hotels all over the world including the Four Seasons, Hilton, Le Royal Meridien, Sheraton, Carlton, Intercontinental, Radisson, Sofitel, Novotel, Holiday Inn, Palm Beach, Hyatt Regency, Melia and Royal, Grand and Crown Prince Hotels, as well as many tower buildings and villas across the Arabian Gulf.
The company, which has supplied products to several royal and presidential palaces in the region, considers the Dubai’s 21st Century Tower as one of the most challenging projects where it has supplied 1,000 complete sets of its high-end luxury model – Veranda.
“Roca has a bright future in this part of the world and we are eyeing several upcoming projects such as The World in Dubai, and Pearl-Qatar,” Schoone says.
“Roca has looked outward ever since its establishment, says Schoone and adds, “the company started exporting from Spain in the early 1960s, by venturing into the markets of both Europe and the Middle East.” The very outlook of the company is global and studies are made on a regular basis to explore the possibilities of setting up new factories, sales offices and initiating new joint ventures.
Recently the company has reinforced its international presence through establishing its own companies in the European, American, Asian and African continents,” he adds. Based on its international strategy of exports and management of commercial networks, the Roca Group has advanced to a stage where it has operations in four continents and 35 production centres in 16 countries. This structure has allowed the group to operate on a global scale, acting as a local manufacturer in different markets.
Currently, Roca operates fully-owned production centres and sales subsidiaries in Germany, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, France, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, the UK, Spain, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Turkey and the US.
Roca is considered a European market leader in bathroom products and also enjoys a high international ranking.
During 2003, Roca Corporacion Empresarial – the parent company of the Roca Group –achieved a consolidated turnover of $ 2.06 billion, 49 per cent of which comes from foreign markets. The company bagged a net profit of 97 million euros ($126 million), and scored a profit margin over sales of 6.2 percent.
“A dedicated workforce has been the key to our success. Currently, we provide direct employment for 15,000 people throughout the world,” he adds.
The group has diversified into four sectors and has Roca Sanitario (bathroom fittings) Roca Ceramica (ceramic tiles) Roca Calefaccion (heating) and Clima Roca York (air-conditioning).
“Roca Sanitario’s retail magazine titled – Everything in Bathrooms – sums up exactly what the company does. We produce vitreous china, brass mixers, bath tubs (steel, cast iron, acrylic), hydro-massage baths, saunas, furniture, chrome-metal WC accessories, shower trays, sinks (steel, fireclay, silacryl), mini-pools, mirrors, hydro-massage columns, bath and shower enclosures, seats and covers,” Schoone says.
Roca is also a brand leader and its innovations and designs for the end-user have been distinctive. “In a changing environment that determines personal habits and needs, Roca believes in coming up with innovative designs that provide the best practical solution in terms of functionality, and aesthetics,” he says.
“Roca has been following a strategy of sustained growth based on reinvestment of profit, a rigorous policy of cost control, development of intellectual capital, entering new markets and constant innovation to differentiate Roca products from others,” he adds.
“Since the 1980s, the company has invested approximately two per cent of its turnover in research and development to enhance its innovative capacity even further in order to attain greater technological independence and the advances from R&D have been included in new both new and existing products and extend to all four lines of the company’s business.
“This year we are unveiling a fully automatic shower toilet, the latest technology in hydro-massage baths with touch-screen functions, and water and energy-saving devices, standard in all our cisterns and mixers,” he explains.
Roca has a dedicated design department where the products are created. The information obtained from monitoring socio-cultural habits, market research and investigation of materials and technology is analysed regularly. The data so obtained serves as the basis for subsequent phases of project development, engineering, and formal aesthetic solutions, he adds.
“We are pioneers in the systematic application of design across all our product lines and we have more than 100 specialised professionals. Today, we have large facilities in different countries that work exclusively for this purpose. The technical design offices, patent and trademarks section, test laboratory and model and prototype workshops – many of which are equipped with CAD/CAM machines – are also located in Roca facilities,” he continues.
Sourcing its raw materials mainly from Spain and Europe but also from all over the world, Roca produces over 26 million pieces of products worldwide. “With the demand surging ahead, our production has also witnessed an incremental climb. Our plants are operating at full capacity, and we are adding more capacity to cater to the fast-growing markets.
The company conforms to international standards and its ISO 9001 accreditation dates back to 1997.
“The fact that the company has an impressive financial status is the direct result of its determination to provide quality products for millions of people throughout the world. The growth of Roca is parallel to and inseparable from the evolution of the concept of the contemporary bathroom and has its effect on the architecture, hygiene, health, aesthetics, leisure and lifestyle,” he points out.
Roca’s environmental policy has also been accredited by certifications such as the ISO 14001 and EMAS. “The ISO 14001 was granted to us in 2002 and it guarantees that all production processes comply strictly with environmental conservation standards,” he says.
“We recognise the challenges within the existing market, but we are also aware that we compete in an increasingly complex and demanding environment. In order to face the future, we are still committed to our own managerial model, which has been developed over decades,” he concludes.