In recent years, the company has grown strongly internationally. The company’s growth markets are located all over the world: China, Central, Western and Eastern Europe, the USA, Brazil, and North and South Africa.

To further drive this internationalisation and at the same time provide its customers with another convenient option for ordering, ROWE has decided to become a TecDoc data supplier and to present its products in the TecDoc Catalogue.

Challenges and opportunities

As a mineral oil processing company, you must tackle various challenges. One of these is the procurement of raw materials. At ROWE, they have learned to critically question just-in-time thinking and significantly increase inventories again to ensure the security of supply and delivery for customers.

Other challenges are increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. ROWE is working on solutions that reconcile sustainability, quality, and cost-effectiveness in this area.

For some time now, ROWE has been dealing with the topic of electromobility and how this change can be understood and used as an opportunity. The share of motor oils in sales will become smaller in the future. But even e-cars cannot do without lubricants. ROWE is well positioned in this area with various cooling fluids and a range of greases and oils. In addition, the company offers a variety of other products such as industrial lubricants and winter chemicals.

Sustainability and responsible actions

Since Michael Zehe founded the company, sustainability has been an integral part of the corporate philosophy. His daughter Dr Alexandra Kohlmann, who has been managing ROWE together with him since 2016, continues to drive the agenda forward. For this reason, the company acts responsibly towards people and nature out of conviction and acts with foresight for a more sustainable future.

The strategy focuses on clear fields of action:

• Use energy efficiently and reduce CO2 emissions
• Save resources and avoid waste
• Strengthen sustainability along the supply chain
• Lubricants made from renewable raw materials

The main production plant in Worms was designed and built with sustainability in mind from the very beginning. This can be seen, among other things, in the more than 65 km of pipelines. Each of these “dedicated lines” is used exclusively for a specific product – this helps to protect the environment because it saves countless flushings of the pipes. Electricity is generated to a significant extent from renewable energies, for example through the company’s own 4,000 m² photovoltaic system and the combined heat and power plant at the factory.

The modern process control system as well as a completely CO2-compensated production characterise ROWE. All unavoidable emissions are offset by supporting various sustainability projects that are certified according to the globally recognized Gold Standard.

The packages that are used are also sustainable: around 20 per cent of them are made of recycled material and are manufactured close to ROWE’s production sites to avoid long transport routes.

Active for sports

ROWE’s ambition is to deliver top performance every day. This is reflected not only in the products but also in the relationships with customers. With sports sponsoring, the company has found an optimal way to build and strengthen these relationships emotionally – whether in the end-customer sector or with B2B specialist dealers. This is achieved through long-term, credible, and high-quality partnerships.

In football, ROWE-sponsored clubs Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid embody the spirit of the company as a successful, confident challenger. And in motorsport, ROWE runs their own racing team, ROWE RACING. This goes beyond the usual sponsoring, as the team also serves as a “driving laboratory” for the company’s lubricants.

 TecDoc data supplier and plans for the future

ROWE’s plans for the future are clear: strengthen the company’s private label, show more presence in the international markets and increase sales. For this reason, the Worms-based company has teamed up with TecAlliance and become a TecDoc data supplier. As a strong partner, TecAlliance enables brands to easily open up new markets and increase sales figures.

By working with TecAlliance, the ever-diversifying portfolio of ROWE will be represented in the TecDoc Catalogue as well as in numerous customer systems in the automotive aftermarket. In addition, TecDoc is the right platform for ROWE to help their customers keep track of the many approvals and certifications of their products.

The issue of sustainability also continues to be strongly pursued. For ROWE, it is particularly important to show that modern lubricants will continue to ensure greater efficiency in many processes in the future, not only in the combustion engine. And that saves valuable resources and energy.