Well-crafted everyday objects often hide their greatness in plain sight. Consider the shopping trolley. Spanish manufacturer Rolser has spent almost 60 years developing sleek, durable designs that make life easier. These fabric-covered, two-wheeled trolleys might be associated with older people doing their weekly shop but you’ll find a Rolser trolley in the homes of 63 per cent of Spaniards, according to the family-run company. Meanwhile, on the streets of Barcelona or Madrid, you’re as likely to spot artists ferrying paint and brushes in their Rolser as you are to see families out for a day at the beach using one to stow umbrellas, chairs and snacks.

Rolser was founded in 1966 as a maker of palm and wicker baskets. That it is now a fixture of life in Spain attests to its durability as a brand and the reliable quality of its products. Some 80 per cent of the company’s manufacturing takes place at its headquarters in Pedreguer, a town roughly halfway between Valencia and Alicante.

Surrounded by lemon orchards and a stone’s throw from the Mediterranean, Pedreguer is the ancestral home town of the Server family. Cousins Mireia and Vicent Server are the co-CEOs of Rolser and the third generation of the family to lead the business. When Monocle visits, the pair guide us through its 21,000 sq m facility, where we see workers busily feeding aluminium tubing into a purpose-built machine, which cuts and folds the metal into the frames that give the trolleys their distinctive shape. More than 100 employees work in the factory, where some 2,500 units roll off the production line every day. Producing an average of half a million trolleys per year, the company pulled in nearly €20m of revenue in 2024.

Rolser has long been the top choice of discerning Spanish matriarchs, who have a nose for high-calibre goods. But the brand now also ships to more than 60 countries and has a second factory in Vietnam, founded in 2018; there it produces textiles, such as William Morris prints, to serve equally selective consumers in Australia, China, Singapore and Japan.

The heart of the business, however, remains in Pedre­guer. “We have very special ties to this land,” says Vicent, over the din of workers snapping wheels onto chassis on a nearby assembly line. “By creating work for the community, we threw our support behind the people of this area and tried to foster an industry that wasn’t tourism. In itself, tourism is good – but over the years local manufacturing has largely been snuffed out.”

On the factory floor, Olivia Fornés Agulles is rhythmically working on the final assembly and packing of Rolser’s signature trolley, the Plegamatic, which folds up like a handbag and can be draped over the shoulder when empty. This year will mark 40 years since Fornés Agulles joined the company, for which her sister, brother-in-law, nephew and ex-husband also work. “At this point, it’s simply love that keeps me here,” she says with a smile. “I love this company. It has given me so much.”

Mireia tells Monocle that Rolser has a deep culture of co-operation, which starts with the family. “In the end, everyone here has the same aim,” she says. “What people want most is to work in service of a shared dream and to make it a success.” To that end, key departments, such as design and sales, are headed by members of the Server clan and the company’s previous generation of leaders is helping to ensure Rolser’s longevity by advising the new guard and passing down time-tested values (Mireia’s father, Joan, is the company’s president). This approach has kept her wheels on and ensured a stable transition in leadership.

Rolser was the first company in Spain to mass-produce a shopping trolley, and its strong visual branding, coupled with a refusal to manufacture items that didn’t carry the Rolser logo, has made it a household name. Supermarket chains such as Carrefour and popular department store El Corte Inglés faithfully stock Rolser merchandise.

While there are imitators, Vicent says that the company is maintaining its edge by making sure to invest in research and development. “Competition is great because it pushes you,” he says. “We always have two or three major projects under way that normally take about two years to fully develop.”

Such innovations have included treble wheels, which make it easier to take your trolley up flights of stairs, and a version made entirely from recycled materials. Rolser also manufactures ladders and ironing boards; a recent model that’s reminiscent of a surfboard incorporated recycled clothes hangers. (About 55 per cent of the plastic materials used in Rolser products are recycled.)

Mireia is determined to show the world the value of choosing a Rolser trolley over bulky carrier bags. “When I joined the company in 2000, we didn’t have a department that was dedicated to exports,” she says. “We were just selling passively to countries such as France, the Netherlands and the UK.” By 2005, the business had launched an exports division and she began attending trade fairs, such as Frankfurt’s Ambiente, where she could demonstrate the benefits of owning a high-quality shopping trolley to those outside Spain. Rolser’s regular presence at such events has spurred its team to innovate. “Every year we must present something fresh and new,” says Mireia. In 2023 the brand made headway into the US market with a chic yet sustainable model sold at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Rolser recognises that an object that makes your life easier should also be pleasing to the eye. But to its design and marketing teams, true beauty lies in customers’ appreciation for their efforts and the ways in which they use the company’s thoughtfully developed wares – whether it’s for a commonplace trip to the mercado or a dash to the beach on a sweltering day.

According to one faithful Rolser user, there is no cargo too precious for these trolleys. One story goes that a jeweller in Valencia was looking to transfer his precious goods to a new shop; rather than attract unwanted attention by hiring an armoured car and guards, he enlisted the help of a group of Rolser-toting grannies. Their shopping trolleys were loaded up with boxes of jewellery, with bunches of leeks placed on top – their green ends innocently poking out from the carts’ uppermost fabric flap. Jewellery in tow, the women walked through Valencia just as they would on any other day, safely delivering their cargo to its new home, with passersby unaware of the treasures held within their Rolsers. It’s a fitting anecdote: there is always more than meets the eye when it comes to an unassuming sets of wheels.

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Violeta Dai
Art and project director
Outside Mercado Barceló

What’s in your Rolser?
Today there are plants, a vase of flowers, a bunch of rocks, a bag of earth and tree bark – for a photoshoot, I promise.

Describe your Rolser in a word:
Señora.