Industry Update THE TILE ASSOCIATION COLUMN
Kirby Sebastian appoints commercial director
Kirby Sebastian (KS Bathrooms) has appointed Andrew Bullingham as commercial director as it reveals ambitious growth plans.
Andrew Bullingham joins after a spell with MX Group to whom he had sold his own shower tray business Aquatora in 2011. Assuming total control of KS Bathrooms, he believes the business will quickly establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in the merchants and independent retail sector.
TILING: The Ideal Flooring for Bathrooms & Kitchens T
iling is the most hygienic, easy-to-maintain and long- lasting flooring type for bathrooms and kitchens. Spills and splashes can quickly and easily be wiped away and in most cases a regular cleaning regime is enough to keep any tiling looking as good as new. Not only can a tiled floor last a lifetime, it can also add real value to any home.
These days the choice of floor tiles is endless. New colours, finishes and textures, such as leather, wood, stone and metal look are popular and offer a modern alternative to traditional materials whilst bringing all the performance advantages of tiles.
For kitchen and utility floors, robust and hard wearing tiles are best, for example, porcelain tiles with a textured surface would be an ideal choice; that’s because, they’re easy to clean and extremely durable, and a textured finish will also provide some slip resistance.
For bathrooms and showers, tiled floors provide a water resistant surface and are easy to keep clean. For upstairs bathrooms and showers, suspended wooden floors are probably the most found sub-floor and can easily be tiled onto when the right tiling products or systems are chosen. In these areas. we’re seeing trends towards undertile heating and wet rooms in particular. To get the right advice on the perfect tile and/or tiling products for a project, or to find a professional, reliable tile fixer, we’d advise you to always choose a member of The Tile Association (TTA). That’s because, every TTA member passes rigorous approval criteria before being awarded the membership, so you can rest assured any tile retailer, fixer or manufacturer wishing to join the ranks has already had their experience, abilities, track record and financial health checked.
The Tile Association is THE trade association for the UK wall and floor tiling industry. It's committed to raising industry standards as well as providing support and benefits to its members. Members can rely on the association for a range of technical, marketing and business support.
The Fuelcard People asks fleet managers: how valuable is your time?
Some fleet managers are losing hours of valuable management time through having the wrong fuel cards, according to Steve Clarke, general manager of The Fuelcard People.
His comments follow widespread press coverage of a fuel card company’s system difficulties which meant some customers had to wait 30 minutes or more for their calls to be answered and were unable to access information via the company’s website; temporary workers revealed that 30 temps had been hired for a month to help to clear backlogs.
u For further information or to join TTA visit
www.tiles.org.uk/join
38 BKUAPRIL 2013
“This is a common reason for a customer to switch to The Fuelcard People,” says Clarke. “Having a dedicated account manager with a named back-up means calling the same person every time on their direct line. Delays are minimal, you talk to somebody who understands your business. Our insistence on quality service makes us a more attractive proposition than any fuel card company that expects customers to wait in a call queue.”
“I am extremely excited about the future at KS Bathrooms because we have a very high quality and comprehensive product offering for the trade with excellent customer service is at the heart of everything we do,” comments Bullingham. “We believe we have the foundations to challenge the major, well recognised brands in the current UK market.”
KS Bathrooms is in the process of expanding its five-strong sales team led by manager Daniel Masser and plans to move to larger premises in the Midlands area later this year.
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