History

On July 23, 1937, Robert Baruch and Willy Cohn establish “Roba Metallurgische Handelsmaatschappij” in Amsterdam. Both Baruch and Cohn are experienced metal traders. Due to their Jewish background, the pair have fled from Germany to the Netherlands earlier that year, with the hope to rebuild their lives in the Netherlands. Their business starts with trading and processing scrap. An activity that would nowadays be called recycling. For their activities, Roba has a storage site at the old ‘Entrepotdok’ at the Kadijksplein.

At the end of the war, the families of the two founders have been hit hard. Founder Robert Baruch does not survive the war – he dies in the camps. His daughter Mary is the sole survivor of their family. After the war, she marries Stefan, the son of Willy Cohn. Cohn survives the war in hiding. He returns to find his company stripped and plundered. Virtually nothing remains of pre-war Roba. There is luckily one small ray of light – Roba is transferred a small payment for confiscated stock. With this modest starting capital, Willy Cohn sets to work again.

The name of founder Robert Baruch continues to live on in the name of the company (RoBa).

From 1953 onwards, Stefan Cohn joins his father Willy at Roba. This means the second generation of the family enters the company. Also future generations would later join the company. Up until this day, Roba is still a 100% independent family-owned business.

Stefan Cohn: “As a child, when I was off from school, I accompanied my father to his scrap yard. When he saw a piece of metal he picked it up. My mother thought it was shabby; today it’s called recycling!”

The many crises of the 1970s do not stop Roba. In 1976, the Belgian company Affilips is taken over. Affilips is a smelter that produces copper-, aluminium-, nickel, zinc- and lead based alloys.

In IJsselstein, Roba expands with a 6.000 m2 indoor recycling works. A year later, this is followed by the opening of a stainless steel service center in IJsselstein. The service center possesses a cut-to-length line and a grinding machine.

Also in the field of aluminium smelting, Roba expands its portfolio. Kawecki Billiton Metaalindustrie (KBM), a producer of aluminium alloys with plants in Delfzijl and Oss, has gotten into financial difficulties. Roba is happy to save the company and provide KBM and its employees a future. KBM starts working closely together with Affilips, the earlier taken-over fellow producer of alloys. Both companies form until this day a major part of the Roba Group.

Roba continues to focus itself even more on services. Stock capacity increases, IJsselstein starts using a second grinding-line, while the production in Genk also grows in scale. A new division, Stainless Steel Export & Specials is also established in 2002.

In Genk, a new service center for stainless steel and aluminium opens, as well as a new office. Roba shifts its focus to international expansion with the opening of Roba Metals Krefeld in Germany.