Rigips Romania SRL

Rigips Romania SRL is fast becoming Romania’s preferred choice for interior building systems that provide innovative design solutions
Eastern promise

Rigips Romania SRL is fast becoming Romania’s preferred choice for interior building systems that provide innovative design solutions

Established in 1994, Rigips Romania SRL, today a member of the worldfamous Saint-Gobain Group, is a market leader in the supply of gypsum based building products, serving a growing number of customers for innovative building systems.

The company employs more than 200 highly skilled personnel, who are the cornerstone of its operations. Often praised for their outstanding work, Rigips employees operate on a ‘right first time, every time’ basis. Enthusiasm and innovation at work are essential if the company is to provide total satisfaction to its customers and the company believes in developing careers and making sure every one of its team has the skills they need for a successful career.

Since 1994, when Rigips Romania was established as a BPB group company, products featuring the world-renowned Rigips brand have conquered the Romanian market and the brand name has become a synonym for high quality.

After a reasonably steady start, the distribution and sale of Rigips products really took off in 1995, forcing Rigips Romania to expand – a trend that has continued to the present day. On the back of extremely fast economic growth in the country at the time, the company became the first to pass the one million euro sales mark. As if that wasn’t enough, in 1998, the company reached another milestone, selling over one million square metres of plasterboard panels.

In 1999, Rigips Romania’s determination to dominate the market was supported by the acquisition of the majority stake in Romania’s leading plaster producer, Gypsum Turda, from Holcim. This was a major development and signalled an intention to develop production activities in the country.

Rigips Romania has been gradually accelerating growth over the past few years. The merger with Gyspum Turda was completed in 2002 and enabled the firm to reap new opportunities and substantially supplement the range of products and services on offer. The combined sales of the two companies, operating jointly under the name Rigips Romania, exceeded more than 30 million euros last year – the business is now a major force.

An organisation with a lot of industry experience, Rigips has a long history and a proven record of providing effective lining solutions for many prestigious construction projects. Indeed, the Rigips brand now has a strong command on the market and the organisation has grown considerably in a relatively short period. Its solutions have been used on many of the country’s landmark projects, including the World Trade Centre Bucharest, which started operating in 1994, as the first business centre in Romania and the largest real estate project in South Eastern Europe. A variety of Rigips solutions, from dry plasters to fire protection systems and ceilings, have since been employed on projects around Romania.

Rigips Romania has performed consistently well over the years and an ambitious investment programme has seen the company flourish. Under the stewardship of its previous owner, BPB group, the company invested considerable funds in developing new capacity and improving working practices. More than 30 million euros have been spent on making Rigips Romania the company it is today.

The culmination of this investment programme came in 2004, when Rigips Romania opened a brand new, greenfield, plasterboard manufacturing facility. The new plant is a major accomplishment, and one the local board had been pursuing for a long time. The investment moved Rigips Romania a step closer to becoming the preferred choice for interior building systems that provide innovative design solutions.

The new plant is a completely environmentally friendly one and became fully operational at the end of 2005. It has a highly flexible production structure that includes all types of plasterboard panels – whether that is normal, waterproof or fireproof. The investment also helped the company expand its export market and it now sells to many other regions.

Rigips Romania SRL aims to be the preferred choice when it comes to gypsum based plastering and dry lining systems and works closely with industry professionals to create innovative solutions. Strong relationships with clients, building owners, designers, merchants and contractors ensure that its products and systems continue to provide highly cost-effective solutions.

A consumer-conscious enterprise, Rigips focuses very heavily on its customers, building strong relationships with them to ensure its products and systems are the best on the market. Indeed, Rigips is committed to delivering a superior product through world-class processes.

Rigips’ success is down to its experience and the fact that it focuses on the big picture, long-term. Business is booming at the moment – the plasterboard and decorative ceilings market grew constantly last year – and production and sales are up by 24 per cent compared to 2005. Industry growth has exceeded expectation, yet the traditional plasters market has remained stable, in line with the company’s expectations. Per capita consumption of plasterboard, however, is still lower than in western countries.

“We prefer to see this all-important parameter as an indication of the considerable potential of the Romanian market,” says the company’s managing director Constantin Hariton. “As on one hand the construction industry takes off, and on the other hand more and more Romanians begin to understand the advantages of gypsum-based products, we expect the market to continue to grow apace – and we hope we shall continue to outperform the market.

“Consequently, for the current fiscal year we expect sales growth of up to 20 per cent,” he concludes. Over the years, Rigips Romania has earned a reputation for quality, service and outstanding craftsmanship. Given its commitment to meeting customer demands and determination to succeed, continually improving, the company has a good outlook for the future. In addition, demand for plaster and plasterboard continues to increase and it is essential that Rigips has the production capacity to satisfy this market growth. As a result, yet more investment in increasing capacity will be on the cards in the coming years.