Tweet
Official Florida Today Article:
Rockledge, FL -- "We may have something happening in Majorca," an employee at Roswell Global said, fresh from a big boat show in Dusseldorf, Germany.
"You want to go to Majorca?"
Company CEO Robert Oswell rolled his eyes.
"Who has time to go Majorca?" he said.
Such was one conversation during a recent FLORIDA TODAY tour of Roswell Global in Rockledge a couple of weeks ago.
My first thought was "Where is Majorca?" It sounded like the end of an off-color limerick. Majorca, I discovered, is an island in Spain. And with all the activity taking place these days at Roswell Global, the company Oswell founded and relocated here from Canada, things seemed plenty busy without a pop-in to Majorca.
Roswell Global is Brevard County's newest tech company that people should be watching, particularly younger engineers and techies looking for employment opportunities. You work hard there but you get to be creative in one of the coolest facilities I've visited on the Space Coast in quite a while.
The company's bread-and-butter is making accessories for the boating industry. But with a recent acquisition, it has moved into designing home wireless audio systems.
Numerous people who went to Roswell's open house last November told me it reminded them of Google — bright open spaces with numerous glassed-in meeting rooms, meeting nooks with sofas and work tables, and big-screen TVs for Skype meetings and other business dealings. There's a cantina, a massage room and a children's play area is under construction for when employees have to bring them.
Then you have research and development rooms, a large distribution area and a design and fabrication section.
Twice employees zipped by on skateboards while I was there. They weren't goofing off. They were serious-looking employees moving between work sites. Another employee, named TJ, was busy working on product design sketches in the "Australia Room."
"You want to put some of those on the web site, let me know," someone told TJ.
I'm not sure if this is the work place of the future but it's the image that comes to mind when people talk about it. It reminded me a lot of Thales in Melbourne, the former LiveTV facility, where employees design and test wireless systems entertainment systems for airlines.
Roswell is a 16-year-old company founded in Canada that made Rockledge its headquarters last year. The company has offices in Canada, Sydney, Australia and China. There also are sales offices in Europe.
"Our goal now is to expand in Rockledge and employ a lot of people," said the 37-year-old Oswell.
Not bad for a lanky Alberta, Canada farm boy.
Someone once referred Alberta to me as "Kansas without the glitz." You have to figure in a place like that you work hard and have to repair things on the fly when they break down because calling a repair person isn't always an option. You also have a lot of time to think, and that probably helped Oswell as he was growing up and morphing into an entrepreneur.
He started his own company at 17. Two years later he bought a house and a boat. It was then he he came up with the idea for a water sports pylon for wake boarding. That's how Roswell came about. (Robert + Oswell = "Roswell)." He rented out his house to save money for patents.
"I moved into my garage," Oswell said. "Starvation almost set in. It wasn't very lucrative. But I never went back. I"ve been been doing this ever since."
For years Roswell developed cutting-edge products like wake towers, Bimini tops and other accessories for boats and watercraft. Then the company expanded into marine audio products. Most recently, with its acquisition of Zenovia Electronics Inc., Roswell moved into designing and manufacturing home wireless audio systems.
"That's an exciting one because Zenovia is an Apple (made for iPhone) licensee," said Oswell, adjusting music throughout various areas of the cavernous building by punching a few buttons on his cell phone.
Roswell Global currently has 35 employees and the goal is to grow that figure to at least 200 in three years.
Roswell expanded into Brevard five years ago, from its then headquarters in Canada, to be closer to Correct Craft in Orlando. Correct Craft is the manufacturer of the high-end Nautique ski boats and it has been one of Roswell's key customers. As his company was growing, Oswell realized a few things about Brevard.
First, he needed space and he needed to be near Florida's boat manufacturing industry. He also needed skilled workers.
Also key was locating to an area where he and his family could enjoy living. The family boats, surfs and Oswell coaches hockey at the nearby Space Coast Iceplex.
"It's a beautiful area," Oswell said. "We have the intracoastal waterway here where we can run boats and test the products, including salt water testing," he said. "What really surprised me was the skilled labor in the area. It really is a technology mecca. That was another big draw — great people."
Schools, if there is a chance to arrange a tour of Roswell, schedule it. I can promise your students will come away impressed, with not only the company headquarters and R&D operations, but also with Oswell. He sketched out the vision of Roswell Global's facility — the former Spartech Marine building off Murrell Road — on a piece of paper.
I got the impression he didn't necessarily like the Google comparison only because this building is his baby.
Here is what you won't see: Cubicles. Piles of paper. Suit and ties. Here is what you will see: Plenty of open spaces for greater collaboration. Bleachers for people to sit on during events.
"I studied best places to work globally and then designed this concept," Oswell said. "I wanted to create an environment that could compete with any company on the West Coast," he said. "We want to be known as an electronics and technology company. What we're building here is a place to attract key people — app developers, creative people, designers, engineers — and grow."
As I said. This is a Brevard company to watch.
Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.
Rockledge, FL -- "We may have something happening in Majorca," an employee at Roswell Global said, fresh from a big boat show in Dusseldorf, Germany."You want to go to Majorca?"
Company CEO Robert Oswell rolled his eyes.
"Who has time to go Majorca?" he said.
Such was one conversation during a recent FLORIDA TODAY tour of Roswell Global in Rockledge a couple of weeks ago.
My first thought was "Where is Majorca?" It sounded like the end of an off-color limerick. Majorca, I discovered, is an island in Spain. And with all the activity taking place these days at Roswell Global, the company Oswell founded and relocated here from Canada, things seemed plenty busy without a pop-in to Majorca.
Roswell Global is Brevard County's newest tech company that people should be watching, particularly younger engineers and techies looking for employment opportunities. You work hard there but you get to be creative in one of the coolest facilities I've visited on the Space Coast in quite a while.
The company's bread-and-butter is making accessories for the boating industry. But with a recent acquisition, it has moved into designing home wireless audio systems.
Numerous people who went to Roswell's open house last November told me it reminded them of Google — bright open spaces with numerous glassed-in meeting rooms, meeting nooks with sofas and work tables, and big-screen TVs for Skype meetings and other business dealings. There's a cantina, a massage room and a children's play area is under construction for when employees have to bring them.
Then you have research and development rooms, a large distribution area and a design and fabrication section.
Twice employees zipped by on skateboards while I was there. They weren't goofing off. They were serious-looking employees moving between work sites. Another employee, named TJ, was busy working on product design sketches in the "Australia Room."
"You want to put some of those on the web site, let me know," someone told TJ.
I'm not sure if this is the work place of the future but it's the image that comes to mind when people talk about it. It reminded me a lot of Thales in Melbourne, the former LiveTV facility, where employees design and test wireless systems entertainment systems for airlines.
Roswell is a 16-year-old company founded in Canada that made Rockledge its headquarters last year. The company has offices in Canada, Sydney, Australia and China. There also are sales offices in Europe.
"Our goal now is to expand in Rockledge and employ a lot of people," said the 37-year-old Oswell.
Not bad for a lanky Alberta, Canada farm boy.
Someone once referred Alberta to me as "Kansas without the glitz." You have to figure in a place like that you work hard and have to repair things on the fly when they break down because calling a repair person isn't always an option. You also have a lot of time to think, and that probably helped Oswell as he was growing up and morphing into an entrepreneur.
He started his own company at 17. Two years later he bought a house and a boat. It was then he he came up with the idea for a water sports pylon for wake boarding. That's how Roswell came about. (Robert + Oswell = "Roswell)." He rented out his house to save money for patents.
"I moved into my garage," Oswell said. "Starvation almost set in. It wasn't very lucrative. But I never went back. I"ve been been doing this ever since."
For years Roswell developed cutting-edge products like wake towers, Bimini tops and other accessories for boats and watercraft. Then the company expanded into marine audio products. Most recently, with its acquisition of Zenovia Electronics Inc., Roswell moved into designing and manufacturing home wireless audio systems.
"That's an exciting one because Zenovia is an Apple (made for iPhone) licensee," said Oswell, adjusting music throughout various areas of the cavernous building by punching a few buttons on his cell phone.
Roswell Global currently has 35 employees and the goal is to grow that figure to at least 200 in three years.
Roswell expanded into Brevard five years ago, from its then headquarters in Canada, to be closer to Correct Craft in Orlando. Correct Craft is the manufacturer of the high-end Nautique ski boats and it has been one of Roswell's key customers. As his company was growing, Oswell realized a few things about Brevard.
First, he needed space and he needed to be near Florida's boat manufacturing industry. He also needed skilled workers.
Also key was locating to an area where he and his family could enjoy living. The family boats, surfs and Oswell coaches hockey at the nearby Space Coast Iceplex.
"It's a beautiful area," Oswell said. "We have the intracoastal waterway here where we can run boats and test the products, including salt water testing," he said. "What really surprised me was the skilled labor in the area. It really is a technology mecca. That was another big draw — great people."
Schools, if there is a chance to arrange a tour of Roswell, schedule it. I can promise your students will come away impressed, with not only the company headquarters and R&D operations, but also with Oswell. He sketched out the vision of Roswell Global's facility — the former Spartech Marine building off Murrell Road — on a piece of paper.
I got the impression he didn't necessarily like the Google comparison only because this building is his baby.
Here is what you won't see: Cubicles. Piles of paper. Suit and ties. Here is what you will see: Plenty of open spaces for greater collaboration. Bleachers for people to sit on during events.
"I studied best places to work globally and then designed this concept," Oswell said. "I wanted to create an environment that could compete with any company on the West Coast," he said. "We want to be known as an electronics and technology company. What we're building here is a place to attract key people — app developers, creative people, designers, engineers — and grow."
As I said. This is a Brevard company to watch.
Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.
