Hundreds of building professionals and OWA staff from all over the world have been flown into London, for a birthday party with a difference.
They’ve been celebrating 25 years in the British and Irish market for OWA, the acoustic ceiling specialist. They’ve also been given the inside track on what’s coming in the market – and the potential new business opportunities.
“We wanted to thank our customers – the architects, planners, contractors and distributors – for their confidence in the quality and reliability of OWA,” says Andrew Smith, managing director of OWA UK. “We’ve also got a lot of news to get out there, there’s plenty we have in the pipeline. And there are developments in the market that these professionals need to know about.”
OWA’s UK business was the first overseas operation for family-owned Odenwald Faserplattenwerk, one of Europe’s leading suspended ceiling manufacturers. It has since expanded to a global business, with sales in 100 countries. Incredibly, even as OWA’s reputation grew and its products won more and more fans, it remained relatively unknown in the UK until recently. It had been marketed under a variety of other brand names. It’s well known now, though.
Among the 200 guests invited to London were OWA staff from offices in Brazil, Hong Kong, South Africa, USA, Turkey, Russia, Poland, Belgium, Holland and France, as well as from the headquarters in Amorbach, Germany.
The party kicked off at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. Then the guests took a cruise down the Thames, from Westminster to the Thames Barrier. Then dinner and entertainment into the night.
It seems the celebrations were a success. Among the guests’ comments:
“It was great to catch up with colleagues and friends and meet new people …”
“I never realised the scale and competencies of this organisation, nor that it was global.”
And the birthday gift?
Nearly £7000 was raised for World Emergency Relief – through a charity auction among OWA’s guests. The money raised will go to help the victims of the cyclone in Burma and to relieve suffering in other disaster areas.
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