ROQ Group is an industrial company, vertically integrated, internationally recognized for its quality, durability, reliability and innovation, characteristics supported by a team of about 600 people that ensures the know-how and the forefront in developing products of excellence.
ROQ’s main goal is to develop new products and create personalized and innovative solutions that will solve customers’ most complex challenges. For this reason, they anchor ROQ Group’s Governance in the 5 fundamental values that make up ROQ BUSINESS SYSTEM:
- Developing people;
- Listening to the voice of the customer;
- Kaizen is our “way of life”;
- Innovation defines our future;
- Competing to create value.
Interview with Fernando Pinto, CEO ROQ Group.
Fernando Pinto, CEO
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Fernando Pinto: ROQ Group has two brands/fields of activity:
ROQ, which develops the activity of designing, manufacturing and marketing machines with high-end technology for: textile printing, digital printing on clothing and fabrics, web to print, drying, folding, packaging and labeling.
And ROQ Laser, which provides services within the metalworking field focusing on a strong component of assembly and turnkey services that add value to our customers, from design to production.
E.E: What’s the news for 2021 about new products?
F.P: At ROQ, our focus for 2021 is to achieve Global Leadership and worldwide recognition as leaders in the creation and manufacturing of integrated digital printing solutions, for textile printing, drying and packaging.
In this regard, we have an ambitious expansion plan across several strategic countries accounting for the unparalleled potential, quality and productivity of our 3rd generation of digital equipment that was launched at the beginning of the 2nd quarter of 2021.
These machines are available at our R&D space, the ROQ Tech Center, where every day we have customers who visit us in order to test the technological capabilities of our equipment by performing real production simulations. We receive technicians, production directors and even CEOs from the world’s largest screen printing and textile companies, who are always pleasantly surprised by the level of quality, productivity and reliability of our machines.
At ROQ Laser, we have a wide range of services in the area of metalworking including: design, 2D laser cutting, metal bending, welding, painting and assembly, delivering products such as various component parts or fully developed and complete turnkey solutions.
This is what we do, with an ever-increasing productivity, for our customers within the agricultural, industrial, health, construction, energy, food, transportation, furniture and, of course, metalworking sectors.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
F.P: At ROQ, we sell the most reliable and durable screen-printing machines and accessories on the market, as well as the most productive and advanced digital printing equipment for web to print and direct printing on textiles and other fabrics. We also have state-of-the-art packaging, drying and consumable solutions.
ROQ Laser is focused on strengthening its position in the international market, adding value to the products and services provided to the customers with a strong assembly component and turnkey services.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
F.P: The screen-printing market, in which ROQ is positioned as a world leader and present for over 38 years, has been growing at a steady pace for several years now, registering an annual growth of about 3% per year.
The digital printing market is experiencing a strong growth of 10 to 15% every year, and is our main focus at the moment. We have grown rapidly within this market by providing our customers with ROQ’s highly sophisticated 3rd generation equipment.
The metalworking market segment is also growing significantly, and thankfully, the quality and reliability of the products and services provided by ROQ Laser has enabled us to conquer an increasingly relevant market share in countries such as Germany, France, Spain, UK and Sweden.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
F.P:The main trend is digitalization, both digital printing, where web to print is already an everyday reality within Europe and North America, and in terms of connectivity between equipment, aimed at enjoying greater efficiency and productivity levels.
In this scope, we have an ongoing project called ROQ Connect on which we work in partnership with our customers in order to collect data on the performance of our machines, both digital and screen printers, dryers and packaging solutions.
Then, we work together with customers basing ourselves on the information collected to continuously improve parameters such as productivity, quality and any other relevant features in order to increase production efficiency.
In addition, through technologies such as IoT and augmented reality we have greatly improved our real time technical support services, which are an indispensable factor of competitive differentiation, and also a current market trend.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
F.P: At ROQ, in addition to our state-of-the-art circular and oval screen-printing machines, the fully digital ROQ Now and the ROQ Hybrid, which combines digital and screen printing, are our most innovative products, as are our new range of dryers and 3-in-1 automated packaging equipment that allows for folding, packaging and labelling on a single machine!
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2021?
F.P:During 2020, our sales growth was of 9% compared to the previous year.
In the 1st quarter of 2021, ROQ Group is looking at an 18% growth compared to 2020.
We are aiming for double digit growth during 2021.