Cover Story: Rothoblaas

Keeping Timber Connected

Rothoblaas, the Italian multinational manufacturer of high technology timber solutions, has opened the doors to its brand new UK subsidiary in Manchester. Eve Dennehy caught up with Stefano Muscoloni, newly appointed CEO of Rothoblaas UK to find out more.

othoblaas is much more than just a manufacturer,

Rtell us more about the company?

“Rothoblaas is an Italian multinational company providing high technology solutions for the timber sector. We want to be recognised as an innovative company: a company that spreads the know-how as well as the technology. Our headquarters are based in the Dolomite region of Northern Italy from where we provide worldwide product and support services that cover every need for timber construction, in particular for mass timber construction, and specialising in cross laminated timber (CLT).

“The roots of Rothoblaas go back to 1991, and this year we celebrate our 30th anniversary. The Company was formed by Robert Blaas when he was 24 and running his own business selling machines for carpenters. He was active initially just in the Dolomite region, subsequently growing to cover the whole of Italy and finally reaching an international market. He was joined in the business in 1993 by Peter Lang who was just 20 at the time and together they identified a gap in the market which led them to develop Rothoblaas into the company it is today.

“They were pioneers, but there was also an element of luck in that they happened to be based in the area in which CLT was born. In the early 1990s the mass timber market was based predominantly in this same area of northern Italy, Austria and Germany and it focused mainly on private homes and small structures. What Robert and Peter understood was that the market for timber construction would inevitably head in this direction, that CLT would be the market for the future. They were the first to believe in this material as the future of construction and decided to move into the design and production of fasteners and screws, going on to develop the full range of products and services needed for all elements of timber construction. In fact the only product Rothoblaas doesn’t provide is the timber itself.”

What can you tell us about what’s happening in the UK market overall and why have you taken the decision to expand your base here?

“The decision to open the UK subsidiary was due partly to growth in the market and because we now have six members of staff here. Also, for Brexit purposes, having a subsidiary in the UK helps us with import and export – for example we can provide all our documentation in Sterling instead of the Euro and this is a major benefit.”

What is your UK strategy and how does it fit into the company’s overall strategy?

“Our strategy is related to growing the mass timber market. The UK market is strong, with increasing numbers of designers, engineers and contractors keen to use mass timber. We need to aid the process of growing the market in this direction. We’re working with all the main mass timber contractors in the UK as well as many of the largest companies in modular construction so you can see Rothoblaas fixings, tapes and membranes in most mass timber buildings here. We also see the importance in helping to develop the market for timber frame, carpentry and joinery.”

Tell us more about your range of products and services...

“We design and manufacture fastenings: screws, connectors, hidden connections – everything required to connect two pieces of timber. Our range also includes fall protection systems, Passivhaus products such as membranes and tapes, and noise reduction systems which is quite new to the market. Around 5% of our turnover comes from our large range of carpentry tools and machines. In Italy carpentry is a common trade which is why we’ve developed such a large range, and this enables us to supply specialised carpentry products to the UK market that would be difficult to find here otherwise.”

As a company you are committed to R&D. How do you collaborate with leading academic institutions to further timber knowledge and technology?

“We take care internally of the R&D for all of our products from concept to market entry. Very often the ideas come from our collaboration with universities or contractors or builders. It’s very important to us that we’re working with the best timber construction universities around the world, such as the Universities of Trento Innsbruck, Edinburgh Napier and different universities in France and Germany. important market, we gradually increased the number of agents to six and began to raise our profile. It’s a streamlined and efficient way of working, the idea is to increase the structure in each country and to have a subsidiary Rothoblaas with an office and a warehouse.”

With the unforgiving demands of international ‘just in time delivery’, how do you organise your global logistics to keep up?

“Our way to be in the market is to have the product very close to our customer to ensure that we meet their needs. We aim to provide product for our clients in two or three days and to achieve this we have 22 subsidiaries and twelve warehouses including in the United States, You recently launched the ground-breaking Spider connector, Japan, South Africa, and the UK. how is this product likely to further what is possible for mass “We have two warehouses in Europe: our largest is at our Italian HQ. timber construction? This warehouse was expanded four years ago, but demand had already

“This component will advance what is possible for timber outgrown it after only three years and we are currently building a new, construction as it allows column connection directly to the CLT floor fully automated warehouse to replace it which will have double the structure without the use of beams, which was not previously a capacity and an additional 3,200 m2 space for stocking products. There possibility. Because the Spider allows you to build more like a concrete will also be 1,200 m2 for new offices. The new warehouse will operate structure, it opens up possibilities for designing commercial and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using a sophisticated robotic system that multistorey buildings with open plan spaces which is not possible using automatically stocks each pallet according to a software formula, then CLT wall panels alone. It will also enable building at greater height. collects the pallets to be loaded into specific trucks.

“The Spider has already been used in three projects in Italy and Austria and we have just received approval for another project in the north of Italy. Although in the UK we Our strategy is related to growing the mass timber don’t yet have a live project, we are receiving several requests for the Spider including an market. The UK market is strong, with increasing enquiry for a 14-storey under consideration in numbers of designers, engineers and contractors London.” keen to use mass timber. We need to aid the process Rothoblaas is operative in more than 70 of growing the market in this direction

countries and is expanding to new areas – what is your model for providing ‘on the ground’ technical support?

“We are currently expanding into several new territories, mainly “Product for all the other warehouses around the world will be the US and Canada, but also South America and Asia. We also now stocked here and from this central position of northern Italy we’ll stock have technical agents in China, Thailand, Japan. We have around the product for the whole of Europe. As a great example of material re480 employees worldwide. Our model is to have one or two highly- use, some of the original CLT from the old warehouse is being recycled trained technical agents in each country. For example in Thailand, and shipped to Chile where it is being used to build a new warehouse. we’ve recently begun to have some projects in mass timber so we’ve This means that the original timber can go on to store CO2 for the appointed a locally-based technical agent to develop this market. This lifetime of a second building.” is what happened in the UK in 2013 when we were working with just a few contractors on their mass timber projects. Seeing the UK as an More at  www.rothoblaas.com