The Future is FORMIA

Unrivalled in its continuous success, supplier FORMIA, have been the catalyst of a multitude of innovations within the airline amenity industry and have transformed the market with diversified brand collaborations within travel, luxury and lifestyle brands never seen onboard before. The company’s shift in 2009, with the re-branding and appointment of CEO & Managing Partner Roland Grohmann, saw FORMIA emerge from the hospitality industry in hotels, airlines and cruise liners, and reposition itself exclusively in the specialisation of airline amenities.Now celebrating their 10th anniversary of being market leaders in the world of amenities, FORMIA have reached the zenith of its success. For the supplier to reach even newer heights, Roland Grohmann is now overseeing the next step in the company’s journey.

At the heart of FORMIA’s ethos is the ancestral oriental character ‘REN’, which promotes humanity at the centre of all creation.  Continuing to take inspiration from this, Roland stresses that they are ambitious, ‘to focus on the end-consumer, the passenger, and how we will further incorporate consumer expectations and trends when developing products and concepts in the future.’There are multiple ways FORMIA have already implemented their customer centric ethos with their FORUM365 trend forum, however they are now looking to modernize and elevate the company infrastructure to lend itself to the passengers wants and needs even further with a new management team. ‘Our new management team will compromise of a CEO, CCO & CMO that will have specific areas of responsibility but work seamlessly across all spectrums of our business to continue and further accelerate what we have been successful with: a fully customer centric approach,’ explains CEO Roland Grohmann.

Roland will continue to lead at the helm of the business with his focus very much on the overall leadership, strategy, business development, and supply chain,whilst the newly appointed Philipp Wendschuh as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Niklas Sandor as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will oversee more of the day-to-day activities and aspects of the business. In addition to this, FORMIA also plan to build up all layers of the company putting measures in place for additional internal career progression and development at multiple levels. Roland Grohmann confesses, ‘I am very proud that many of our staff have joined FORMIA either directly from university or early in their career and have since taken on new roles and challenges with added responsibilities. Despite our market leading position, we still have a very young and energetic workforce.’

Philipp Wendschuh, as CCO will lead all customer and commercial activities and has, over many years, built and forged outstanding customer relationships, particularly in the Middle East and Europe. Working with the company’s ‘Sales & Customer Service’ team, Philipp will focus on marketing products and concepts that are bespoke and unique to each customer, as well as imparting his extensive customer expertise and know-how across FORMIA’s global customer base. In speaking with Philipp, he was keen to stress that as a company FORMIA, ‘see the amenity kit as an enabler for the customer experience and the need to represent each airlines’ unique identity. FORMIA’s experienced team and efficient company structure enables us to make fast decisions and pro-actively set new trends for the industry. The proactive nature of the company and its ability to act fast in adapting to the ever-changing market, is of the utmost importance to us and we are determined to keep it that way.’

Having already played a leading role in FORMIA’s most successful brand collaborations, the final member of this tour de force, CMO Niklas Sandor, will be responsible for Design & Marketing. Niklas will not only drive the company’s efforts and focus on the product itself, but also how the overall onboard experience will inevitably transform the world of amenities and comfort products over the coming years. Niklas highlights that, ‘We believe being a specialist is the right strategy, so it is very unlikely that you will for example see FORMIA active in areas such as tableware and other commodity items. Our core business is and will remain amenities and adjacent products. We will however be more active in segments that we also believe can positively impact the customer experience both in the air and on the ground.’

With a newly innovated business structure, FORMIA are looking to the future, excited to share their new concepts at this year’s WTCE. As Niklas confesses, ‘One key trend we are seeing is the transitioning from just products, to products with more integrated experiences. e.g. Social Media is definitely an important element. We will invest more in technology and data insight. How and what we are doing in this regard would give away too much of our strategy, but it is an exciting innovation that we believe will add further value to both our customers and the end consumer.’

The key to FORMIA’s success has been, and will always be, thanks to their authenticity, captivating the market with compelling, human stories at the heart of their work. This couldn’t be truer with Roland, Philipp and Niklas taking the lead in what is set to be a bright and flourishing future for FORMIA.