Robe Celebrates DWR Distribution’s Success

Monday, January 14, 2008 || Robe Show Lighting

The Robe crew – including MD Josef Valchar, international sales manager Harry von den Stemmen and technical sales manager Ales Grivac visited South Africa to help celebrate an incredible year of success with its distributor, Johannesburg-based DWR Distribution. Robe sales have topped the 500 mark in SA in the last 12 months.

Little over a year since taking on the Robe agency DWR Distribution has enjoyed phenomenal results for the brand. DWR’s Duncan Riley puts this down to several factors including his 12 years industry experience, understanding of the demands and deadlines of a fast moving world plus his great personal connections within South Africa.

Robe was one of the first brands onboard when DWR was founded in 2005 , and the portfolio also includes Avolites, MA Lighting, Columbus McKinnon, Strong and ADB. DWR has rapidly expanded from being a one person operation to having 7 full time staff and a unit including offices, a full service centre and a large demo room in Randburg.

Robe’s International Sales Manager Harry von den Stemmen has known Riley for some years and comments, “When Duncan approached us, I knew immediately it was a perfect match. He is extremely well respected and shares the same passion and enthusiasm for the lighting and industry as we all do at Robe”.

Riley comments, “Robe are unlike any other moving light company I have encountered, and I saw massive potential in their products and attitude” says Riley, “Other people had also told me they were going places, and they very much had the products of ‘the moment’” says Riley, adding that his decision was a bit of a ‘no brainer’!

The ball got rolling with one of the initial sales completed with the Urban Brew TV studio in Jo’Burg for 36 ColorSpot and ColowWash 1200E ATs and 12 ColorSpot 250 ATs.

The demand for Robe products in South Africa soon started growing exponentially once word was on the street, and to ensure efficiency and fast delivery, DWR took the big decision to keep a stock of equipment so can supply on demand.

South Africa’s largest and busiest lighting rental company, Gearhouse South Africa, run by the charismatic Ofer Lapid, made their initial investment in Robe in early in 2007, purchasing 48 ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs which was a major brand commitment for them and a major foot-in-the-door in terms of South Africa.

Mike Jones of MJ Event Gear was the first to invest in DigitalSpot 5000 DTs and Mark Gaylard bought 24 panels of StageQube 324 to get things moving on the digital lighting front.

DWR Distribution also won an award for ‘Best Debuting Distributor’ at Robe’s 2007 International Sales Conference. In his speech, Harry von den Stemmen commented, “When Duncan called me to tell me that he wanted to start his own company, I was excited because I knew he was going to make Robe a big brand in South Africa – yet I had no idea how damn good this would be for us! Robe has acheived a phenomenal success with hundreds of lights sold by DWR since it all started ….. and it still looks as if this is only the beginning!”

Duncan Riley is predicting another busy year to come in 2008. With South Africa hosting the FiFA World Cup in 2010, there’s no shortage of projects of all types on the horizon.