BRAND QUALITY IN MORE THAN 135 COUNTRIES

Global leader: ROCA is the world-wide leading full-line provider of bathrooms. Since 1999, LAUFEN has been under the umbrella brand of the family-driven, multinational corporation.

Roca Group is the parent company of a group of businesses involved in the design, manufacture and sale of bathroom products intended for the architectural, construction and interior design sectors. The group has manufacturing centres on four continents and directly employs over 20,000 people worldwide. Roca is world leader in the bathroom business and is active in 135 markets around the globe. It also has an area dedicated to the manufacture and sale of ceramic flooring and ceramic tiling (RocaCerámica). Roca is a multinational corporation working in all time zones, and communicating in dozens of languages all over the world. The family-owned Spanish company has, over recent years, experienced remarkable international expansion based on the acquisition of companies in the sanitary-ware sector in various countries around the world. In 2007, the corporation reached a turnover of 1,788 million euros.

Roca Group began life in 1917 as Compañía Roca Radiadores, S.A. The company initially focused exclusively on the manufacture of cast iron radiators for domestic heating, at its factory in Gavà, in the province of Barcelona. However, the rapid market penetration of its new products and a committed desire to expand led to the move into other business areas with the aim of diversifying corporate activities. This process saw the first cast iron boilers roll off the production line in 1925, with the manufacture of cast iron bathtubs beginning in 1929. In 1936, Roca entered the sanitary-ware market, and in 1954 it also began to manufacture faucets. A second porcelain factory was opened in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) in 1962. It was in 1963, with the establishment of a factory producing air conditioning systems in Sabadell, that Roca became one of Spain’s first companies to enter this new market. In 1968, a third porcelain factory was set up in Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville), with a steel bathtub factory following in 1974. The company’s entry into the ceramics sector began in the 80s, when it set up Cerámicas del Foix, which became a subsidiary of the corporation. In 1989, Roca acquired a sanitary-ware factory in Portugal. During the 80s and 90s, in line with the firm will to expand commercially, subsidiaries were opened and agreements were consolidated with leading companies in their markets at the time. In 1999 LAUFEN joined the Roca Group. On 24th January 2002, Compañía Roca Radiadores, S.A. began the process of restructuring the Group’s companies with the aim of dividing the different business areas into independent companies. This strategy led to the creation of Roca Group, the new parent company, which reached the world leadership position in early 2006. Roca is a wholly Spanish-owned company, with its entire shareholding belonging to the family group set up originally by its founders.