ROMA IS DOING PARTICULARLY WELL

THE GROWTH IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP UP WITH

If you ever watched Bundesliga soccer on Saturday nights on ARD last soccer season, you could see ROMA's TV ads go by. If you broadcast your commercials during soccer in Germany, you belong to the "big boys. ROMA's TV ads prove that ROMA is getting pretty big in its home country of Germany. But not only there. Under the inspiring leadership of director of ROMA Benelux BV Toon van Osta, ROMA is also doing extremely well in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Roma Benelux has continued to grow solidly even during the crisis, but in recent years growth has been really stormy te," notes Toon van Osta. "Due to the long-term loss of a key employee, the inside sales staff at our Zevenbergen office had to fight like lions this year to handle the constant flow of orders. The positive market, the beautiful late summer of 2018 and the beautiful week in February this year have pushed sales to unprecedented levels from day one in 2019. The regularly high temperatures, have stoked the fire even further into a storm that has only slightly subsided in the past few weeks."

Toon van Osta, managing director of ROMA Benelux BV.

In order to cope with all the work, ROMA Benelux is feverishly searching for reinforcement for the office's inside sales staff and for a field sales representative for Flemish and certainly also for French-speaking Belgium. "There is still a lot of turnover there now, some of which is taken by ROMA France because we do not yet have visiting capacity," Van Osta notes with some regret in his voice. "In that part of Belgium there is still a lot to be gained. Especially the part that focuses on Luxembourg is going like hell! ROMA products appear to be very popular there."

New construction

To increase the number of workstations and other possiblejunities in Zevenbergen to expand further, for example to receive customers and provide demonstrations, training and instruction, new construction is needed. The land for this was already purchased at the end of 2018, and ROMA Benelux now has a plot of almost 6,000 square meters at its disposal. "The plans are already ready, but now the realization," Van Osta sighs. "We had to let this project rest for a while, because we had to prioritize the order flow and everything related to it."

"But next year everything must be ready, because ROMA will be celebrating its 40th anniversary," the ROMA Benelux director continued. "Then it will be in Germany and in all ROMA branches  in the rest of Europe big party.

In cooperation with Ambiance Zonwering Van Brederode, ROMA recently supplied shutters for a tapered glass facade.

ROMA founder Roland Thoma was 24 when he started in a wooden shed with a handful of staff. Now he is one of the three largest manufacturers of shutters and awnings in Europe!" In Germany, ROMA has six factories, a new one in France will be commissioned around this time, in the Benelux, ROMA has a branch in Zevenbergen. "In Germany, the brakes have been put on growth for a while now," notes Toon van Osta. "Abroad is still allowed to grow. Then we are talking about France, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux."

ROMA has also had to put exports to Scandinavia, New Zealand and Australia on the back burner because the company is short of hands due to the success achieved in the Benelux. "Visiting customers, making acquisitions, hardly anything has come of it this year because of all the pressure," Van Osta sighs. "We hope for understanding from our customers. One stroke of luck is that many of them don't mind not getting visits at this time, because they have a constant struggle to get their merchandise assembled!"

But of course, where necessary, ROMA Benelux stands for his customers ready, Van Osta stressed. "In these times, dealers find support for difficult orders very important. We provide support with orders if required, as well as with measuring and assembly. This is important because together with our dealers we do many special orders and not just straightforward work. In cooperation with Ambiance Zonwering Van Brederode, for example, we recently supplied roller shutters for a tapered glass facade. These are projects where we can showcase both our craftsmanship and the capabilities of ROMA shutters. Our service technician Hans van Overveld has an overflowing schedule, but fortunately we can still answer all service questions. Where our customers need support the most, is still the outdoor shutter. There is often a lack of knowledge and experience with this product. Important because you have to think about a lot of things, such as cove height, wind fuse and so on."

ROMA's existing building in Zevenbergen.
Due to large crowds, the planned new construction was forced to be postponed.

"And of course we too make mistakes sometimes," concludes Toon van Osta. "Can happen. Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is how you deal with it. We very often ask to make a film of the malfunction so that we can immediately take action. That saves a lot of time. Action, that's how you solve problems! We are taking steps, but we still have to get much better at it. So we are constantly trying to develop and improve."

ROMA, a success story of nearly 40 years

On its site, ROMA puts it with a quip: there are plenty of places in the world that have more sunshine hours than Burgau in the German state of Bavaria, where ROMA's headquarters are located. But it is precisely in Burgau that more than 14,000 solar days of experience with high-quality sun protection systems are pooled.

ROMA presents itself as one of the leading European brands for sun protection systems, which sets the highest standards for itself in terms of functionality, appearance and durability of its products. As a medium-sized company, ROMA cites as its most important insight of the past 39 years: Living begins at the window!

No matter what the need is for ROMA: letting in the sun in the morning, keeping out prying eyes in the evening, keeping out the sun's heat in the warm seasons or insulating and keeping the cold out and the heat in when it's cold outside, the company claims to have a suitable product for every situation. With ROMA's shutters, exterior blinds and screens, end-users have the ability to control indoor climate, light and privacy as they wish, because shutters and/or blinds are for that

A new hall was recently built at ROMA's headquarters in Burgau.

according to ROMA the most appropriate tool.

- More than 1,300 employees.

- Three systems: shutters, exterior blinds and screens (plus derivative products, such as garage doors).

- Eight branches (the branch in France becomes opera at any timetional).

- Founded in 1980.

A good product must also be sold

ROMA traditionally pays great attention to the quality of its products. Proper promotion should ensure that those qualities are brought to the attention of end users. To promote its CDL Comfort & Design slat for exterior blinds in the German home market, ROMA commissioned the online spot Catwalk in 2018. ROMA won a Red Dot Award with it in 2018 and in 2019, the spot also received the German Brand Award 2019 in two categories: winner in the category "Excellence in Brand Strategy and Creation - Brand Communication - Movies, Commercials & Virals" and a special mention in the category "Excellence in Brand Strategy and Creation - Lighthouse Project of the Year. The awards recognize successful brands with consistently implemented brand strategy.

Still from the award-winning online spot.

In the Catwalk spotlight, a woman tries on various outfits while her privacy is guarded by a ROMA outdoor blind with CDL slats. Thanks to the slat overlay and special guide rails, peeking in is not possible even at night in a brightly lit interior.

Dhe spot Catwalk was created by communications agency Baschnegger Ammann Partner from Dornbirn. Director was Tim Löhr and production was handled by Zeitsprung Commercial from Düsseldorf.