Roca Group consolidates its leadership position

In 2022, the Spanish group reported a turnover of more than €2 billion and made investments of €135 million.

Roca Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of ceramic sanitaryware (around 35 million pieces in 2021) and bathroom furnishings, posted a turnover of €2.09 billion in 2022, 1.9% up on 2021.

The group reported particularly strong sales growth in Brazil, India and China, as well as in the Spanish domestic market, which has seen sustained growth since 2014 (with the sole exception of 2020 due to the pandemic).

These results were achieved despite a number of challenges, including disinvestment in Russia and a steady fall in demand caused by rising energy costs and global inflation. This inevitably impacted the group’s margins, with EBITDA at €356 million (equivalent to 17% of turnover) and net profit at €42 million. The Spanish group responded to this increased complexity in several ways: continuously improving the efficiency of its production processes, implementing flexible business operations that can be adapted to local needs, and adopting policies to reduce and control production costs.

As CEO Albert Magrans noted,

“The net assets of €1.7 billion reflect the financial strength of the Group, which bases its growth on self-financing by reinvesting profits.”

Growth in investments

In 2022, Roca made investments totalling €135 million, up 8.9% from the €124 million of 2021. These were mainly allocated to projects aimed at expanding and improving the production capacity of the plants in Brazil and India, building a new factory for resin shower trays and composite bathtubs in Poland, and expanding the bathroom furniture business in Spain and Portugal. The group also completed the startup of the Settat 2 sanitaryware plant expansion in Morocco.

Further investments were allocated to decarbonisation and circularity projects with the aim of ensuring the transition of all production sites in terms of digitalisation, sustainability and efficient use of resources.

The company has also successfully completed the conversion of its Croatian plant into a logistics centre, transforming it into a hub serving the main Central European markets.

Progress towards the goal of carbon neutrality by 2045

Since the launch of its decarbonisation plan in 2018, the Group has achieved a 39% reduction in its scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions.

It has also reduced its energy use intensity by 47% and in 2022 alone installed more than 10,000 photovoltaic panels in multiple locations, including Gavà (Spain), Cantanhede (Portugal) and Suzhou (China), reaching its goal of 21,800 panels installed at its facilities worldwide.

The Group is pushing ahead with the water efficiency plan it has initiated at the factories in Burgos (Spain), Eskisehir (Turkey), Settat (Morocco) and Cantanhede (Portugal) and has already achieved a 47% reduction in water consumption and a 55% reduction in the intensity of water use over the last five years. Roca Group has also achieved a 74% level of reintroduction or recycling of its waste and a 54.6% reduction in its waste generation intensity over the same period.

The development of Competence Centres

One of the main projects pursued by Roca Group to adapt its capabilities to the market has been to extend its industrial model of Competence Centres, enabling it to respond with greater agility, efficiency and sustainability to specific trends and demands. The Competence Centres are vertical hubs of knowledge and technology which coordinate the actions of the entire group in their respective categories.

The integration of the Royo and Sanit business units into the group’s industrial network following their acquisition in 2021 has facilitated the consolidation of this model. This in turn has reinforced the offering of complete bathroom solutions, including porcelain sanitaryware: taps, bathroom furniture, installation systems, partitions and accessories, composite materials and steel bathtubs.

Growth and investment continue in 2023

During 2023, Roca Group has continued to consolidate its development policy and has announced the acquisition of the Florida-based bathroom furniture and mirrors company Madeli, which has 500 points of sale across the USA. This acquisition helps to reinforce the group’s bathroom furnishing operations and generates a strategic knock-on effect in a market where furniture is becoming an increasingly important component of renovation projects.

This year has also seen the continuation of the activities of Roca Group Ventures, the Group’s CVC Corporate Venture Capital platform, which in March made an initial investment in Aquí Tu Reforma (ATR), a digital platform operating in the home renovation segment.