Find your ideal Tromen.
In a parallel universe to that of garage entrepreneurs, Mario Remondino took his first steps on the balcony of his parents' house in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Devoto. He was 20 years old, in 1978, when he began to carry out small blacksmithing tasks and to offer household products to his neighbors.
The idea quickly took the form of a workshop, which was baptized Herrería Parque, and moved to a 300 m2 warehouse in the San Martín district. At that time, the entrepreneur made totally customized works, such as grilles, gates and metal roofs, which he quoted from freehand sketches.
A response to the crisis
In the midst of the 2001 crisis, the activity fell and Herrería Parque was left with idle capacity. In this context, paradoxically, the company had the opportunity to acquire a 1000 m2 warehouse. The situation was not the right one to take the leap, but the company took up the gauntlet and moved forward.
In this context, the company also made a change of direction, renewed its proposal and gave shape to the first salamandra, which bore the Tromen seal. "We were inspired by an imported product. We made two prototypes and went out to offer them, to spend the winter and wait for construction to reactivate", Facundo Cáceres, the company's Communication Director, explained to LA NACION.
For Cáceres, this implied a double paradigm break. "We were 100% receptive to the clientele. Now, we had to go out and offer a standard product to an end consumer, which until then we had not been able to reach. We went out to knock on the doors of premises that we considered suitable, such as air-conditioning companies," he said. And he added: "In addition, we arrived with a totally new concept, which broke with the historical cast iron salamanders. We had to guarantee quality as well as production standards.
Tromen's portfolio includes grills, salamanders and stoves, among other products.
Diversification against seasonality
Shortly thereafter, the company encountered another obstacle: heating systems set the pace of the business and sales were highly seasonal. It was then that it developed Tromen's gourmet line, which included wood-burning and gas ovens, stoves and grills.
"We gained in two ways: we have a relationship with our customers and we offer products throughout the year," said Cáceres. More recently, this year, the brand also incorporated a gourmet accessories unit and a furniture unit, which includes tables, chairs and wine cabinets.
"There is a Tromen for each person, for those who need heating, for those who seek to cover an aesthetic need in the environment and for those who aim at an added value of belonging," said Cáceres. In this line, today, the prices of the salamanders range from $80,000 to $1.5 million.
Currently, Tromen has a staff of around 350 workers and a sales network of 3,500 points in the construction, decoration, air conditioning and retail channels, among others. "We want to be everywhere, that the Tromen fan can find us in every experience, whether at the entrance of a store or in a hostel in the winter centers or on the coast", remarked Cáceres, who also said that every Antarctic refuge "has and will have a salamandra Tromen", since the company has been collaborating with the Antarctic Command for some time. For the last eight years, the company has been located in the Parque Industrial del Oeste, where it has six warehouses and a total of 14,000 m2 of productive space. "Previously, we outsourced part of the process, such as sheet metal cutting. Today, on the contrary, we have almost 100% of the operation integrated, and we process around 550 tons per month", explained the executive.
The company expects to close 2023 with a 5% annual growth in units and a presence in 16 countries in the region, to which it exports. On this basis, Cáceres predicted: "We understand that the market will shrink next year, but we intend to continue expanding, based on an increase in market share and greater diversification of the portfolio".