History - The Milestones of ROWA GROUP
Consistency in Change
The ROWA GROUP is an internationally renowned provider of top-quality technical plastics, special lacquer systems, colour concentrates, additives, foaming agents and adhesion promoters. From our beginnings in 1958 as a rubber processing business, we have reached today's position by steadily expanding our business fields and competence in the world of polymers and growing organically. Along the way, we have recognised technological, economic and social developments and successfully responded to them by establishing new companies and through acquisitions. The keys to our success in doing so have always been our respectability as business people for a small and medium-sized enterprise, our solid roots in Pinneberg, where the company was first established, and the quality of German engineering. With these remarkable characteristics, we are also ready to meet the future demands of the market with creativity and agility.
- 1958 founding of ROWA GmbH
- 1969 manufacture of special lacquers for refining PVC- and PU-coated woven textiles
- 1978 start of producing colour masterbatches for a broad variety of plastics
- 1979 acquisition of TRAMACO GmbH, a leading supplier of primer systems and foaming agent compounds, resins and waxes
- 1987 founding of ROWA INC. USA
- 1989 acquisition and expansion of the Pinneberg site, combined with the relocation of administration, production and parts of research and development
- 1990 founding of ROMIRA GmbH for the production of technical plastics and blend plastics
- 1994 founding of ROWA FRANCE
- 1995 acquisition of a plant and founding of ROWA KOREA for the production and distribution of lacquers for PVC- and PU-coating woven textiles
- 2003 founding of the ROWA GROUP in Delran, NJ, USA for the production of foaming agent masterbatches for the American market
- 2004 purchase of the company Colortek in Karstädt, Brandenburg & founding of ROWASOL GmbH for the production of colours and additives in liquid form
- 2006 introduction of a quality management system in compliance with DIN EN ISO 14001 for the lacquer division
- 2010 separation of the masterbatch and lacquer departments within the ROWA GmbH into ROWA Masterbatch GmbH and ROWA Lack GmbH
- 2010 founding of ROWA GROUP Holding GmbH as a shared servie center for all subsidiaries
- 2010 founding of ROWA Coatings Beijing, China, to market ROWA Lack products in Asia
- 2011 strengthening of the Pinneberg site by constructing a high bay shelve warehouse with more than 4,000 pallet spaces for the ROWA GROUP and by rebuilding and installing new production lines, ultra-modern bagging units and new exterior and interior silos for ROMIRA GmbH
- 2012 purchase of land adjacent to the plant site to expand the site to more than 57,000 m2
- 2012 divestment of the subsidiary Horst Müller Kunststoffe GmbH & Co. KG. New owner Hexpol AB, an elastomere specialist based in Malmö/Sweden
- 2015 expansion in the US: ROWA Inc. / GROUP USA LLC, Northern American subsidiary of ROWA GROUP, moves into a new state-of-the-art technology center in Croydon, Pennsylvania
- 2015 implementation of CCC Color Competence Center® to bundle the color competences and developments of all subsidiaries
- 2016 ROWA Coatings moves to Ningbo and changes its name to Ningbo ROWA Coatings Technology, Co. Ltd.
- 2019 TRAMACO GmbH moves to new location in Tornesch/Germany
- 2019 expansion of storage capacities in Pinneberg with a new lightweight construction hall