Since the start of this year, Chris Cauwenberghs has been leading the Roto team in Benelux. From January 2025, Chris will become head of the Western Europe region, adding the Scandinavian market and the UK & Ireland to his overall responsibility.
Roto More spoke to Chris to get his views on how the last year has been for Roto in Benelux and what he is looking forward to in 2025.

Hi Chris, it was a tough year for the window and door market in Benelux. How has it been for Roto?
It’s true that in Benelux the construction market has been struggling this last year. The positive news for us at Roto is that we don’t see this in the results. The reason is that we prepared for such a scenario and created an ambitious but realistic target for the year. As it turns out, we achieved the target and then surpassed it. We are therefore confident that we are increasing our market share.
During this last year we acquired several important new customers. We have gained over €600k worth of new business from this, and the year is not over — there are still a few in the pipeline. So although the market has been decreasing, we have been getting a bigger share of it. At the moment it looks like we will end 2024 with our best performance in years in terms of new customer acquisitions.

How has 2024 been for you in your role?
The thing I really liked this year was my new challenge – it gave me a focus for the year.
In my role I work closely with our Benelux Sales Manager, Gerry Claassens. As expected, based on our past working, the cooperation with Gerry is going really well. We both believe in empowering people to achieve results, and we have seen the benefits of this as we got further into the year, with customer acquisitions and other achievements from the team.
The way the Roto team works together is a strong factor in our accomplishments. We have also been collaborating in close partnership with fabricators, distributors and system houses. This is a big part of our success, because working together creates win-win situations.

With Francesc Gimeno , ESWA Director and Gerry Claassens, Head of Customers and Markets Benelux
What changes have you put in place this year?
One of the first actions from my end was the implementation of the new Customer Service Hub. This enables us to have more streamlined processes. As a team we are more process-driven than person-driven. If someone is away or busy, another colleague can take over because they all follow the same process.
The great thing about the Customer Service Hub is that it is a group of colleagues independent of the individual countries. They are accessible to all customers equally. This helps us to cope when there are spikes of demand in one part of the market, because all the colleagues can help no matter where they are based. The time freed up helps us to support customers on the things that are most important to them.

We also worked hard on expanding digital ordering. This is strong in Benelux but there are still many orders entered manually in the UK and Scandinavia, so we can still improve efficiencies further next year. In Belgium and Scandinavia now, around 75% of orders are processed electronically. That is over 5% more than last year and it is still increasing.

What other services are working well?
Our e-newsletter is growing in popularity. This is a big part of how we communicate with customers via the Roto More website and the Customer Portal.
We communicate on multiple platforms and on different levels from in-depth technical to commercial. We aim to be transparent and proactively communicate not only on what we have done but on what we are planning to do. This way, customers can take an active part in the process and provide feedback.
As a customer, if you are kept well-informed you are more connected to your supplier. This is where it feels less like a sales transaction and more like a partnership.
Do you have any other initiatives to build customer relationships?
Yes, this area is definitely something we want to improve further. An example of a way we build relationships is to invite customers to meetings at Roto factories. This helps the customers gain a deeper knowledge of how we work as a manufacturer, so they can have a better understanding about what is possible and the timeframes required. We will do this more and more.
It works the other way too of course. We also need to invest more in being present on customers’ sites so we understand how they work.
We build relationships with the tools available: face to face meetings, joint events, video conferencing. You need to use the right tool for the right situation. For example, you can convene a video meeting quickly online and this can help greatly with urgent problem-solving, but for annual meetings and planning, you still need face-to-face contact.

What do you have planned for Roto Western Europe in 2025?
I am looking forward to my extended challenge and working more closely with the sales teams on projects for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia markets.

For Scandinavia we are working on a few big initiatives that should result in positive news during the year. I can’t say much more about those yet, except I am reminded of that quote from Winston Churchill, “Never waste a good crisis”. We have responded to the market conditions by grabbing the bull by the horns and finding new opportunities.
The UK is more challenging and I think it is fair to say that it will take a few years to really create bigger results for Roto here.

Are there any events planned?
In the Netherlands there is HoutPro+ for the wood industry in November 2025. In Benelux the team will also be preparing for Polyclose 2026. We will also collaborate with Spilka for an appearance at Bygg Reis Deg ‘25, the biggest fair in Norway, which takes place in October.
But aside from these trade fairs, I would like to do more customer events on a smaller scale. This would include factory visits and training events with distributors. You can pick up a lot of leads at a trade fair, but with a smaller event focused on one customer, you can help to build a relationship with that client that lasts for years.
Any final thoughts?
We are doing the right things; we just need to keep doing it even more and look for opportunities. Evolution never stops so we should never stop as well.
Another aspiration is to grow the team. It is a challenge to find and keep quality people, but we have made some good appointments in recent times and we have many dependable long-term members of the team. You can have the best product but you also need the best people working together well. At Roto Western Europe we have both the winning products and the team, so the future looks bright.

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