NEWS | Round-up
Hotbath brassware brand coming to UK
People are funny and in this regular series, our kitchen retailer recounts some of the crazier moments he has had dealing with customers
Slick – as in oil slick
THERE IS a saying that ‘no good deed goes unpunished’. This is often true for me, because I like to provide great customer service and, sometimes, I offer to perform remedials for clients whose kitchens we installed many years before. I try to book these jobs in on my way to work, leaving the rest of the day to meet with potential customers to make all-important new sales. On a warm spring morning, I popped round to see our former client, who for the purpose of anonymity, will be called Mrs Crinklecut. There was a blockage in the wastepipe under her kitchen sink. This was really a job for a plumber, but she had called in a bit of a panic and it sounded like a simple fix. I was wearing a nice white shirt as I had a meeting at the showroom straight after. Upon arrival, Mrs Crinklecut and I began chatting. She couldn’t wait to tell me about the new deep fat fryer she had bought. She’d been cooking up a storm – squidgy doughnuts, crisp spring rolls, Buffalo chicken wings, tasty burgers and triple-cooked fries. It was 9am and I already wanted a takeaway.
While she was extolling the virtues of her recent triumph with a battered cod, I poured boiling water down the sink and then carefully placed myself under it, ready to unscrew the U-bend. I had forgotten to pour cold water down it too. As my head was directly beneath the sink, the pipework spontaneously came apart in my hands. Something very hot and slimy began to ooze all over me. It was horrible and very, very stinky. What Mrs Crinklecut had failed to mention was that she had been repeatedly discarding her cooking oil straight down the sink. This had formed a horrid fat ball, with lots of other nasties thrown in afterwards. Having landed directly on my head and in my hair, the sink was no longer blocked. I, meanwhile, smelt like the worst chippy in Britain.
Something very hot and slimy began to ooze all over me
Mrs Crinklecut looked a bit guilty as she gave me some kitchen roll to wipe myself down, but I needed a shower, maybe two, maybe more? Except, I had an appointment in 20 minutes with new clients who were making a special visit and I was now in a dirty, grease- spattered shirt.
With no time to change, I took my wretched, smelly
self to the meeting. My hair looked like I had just attended an Elvis convention, while I absolutely reeked of stale fish and chips.
It must have seemed strange, but I stood exceedingly far apart from my prospective clients during my presen- tation – practically the other side of the showroom. I had to shout to make myself heard. They eventually bought a kitchen with a surface cooking centre that includes an integrated deep fat fryer – slick. Oil slick!
10
DUTCH BRAND Hotbath has launched in the UK market with its full portfolio of bathroom brassware and kitchen taps. Scheduled to launch in the UK on April 1, Hotbath is part of the FM Mattsson Mora Group, which also owns Aqualla and Adamsez. A luxury brassware brand, Hotbath products are manufactured in the Cusio-Valsesia region of Italy near Lake Orta, which is home to many of the country’s brassware producers. The company was founded in 2008 and launched its first product, a fountain cold water tap. It has now grown and claims to be the number-one brassware supplier in the Netherlands and has recently moved to a larger site in Ablasserdam. Hotbath offers 17 ranges, 14 of which are brassware taps for the kitchen and bathroom. The company says it prides itself on offering Italian design flair and high quality, using premium internals from Fluhs.
who is
Kbbreview spoke exclusively to Stuart Telfer, heading up the UK operation
for
Hotbath. On what the brand can bring to the UK market, he said: “I think bathrooms have become fashionable again and people are becoming more adventurous.
“What we provide is a good depth of range in 15 different colours. It is a luxury brand that offers true quality and craftsmanship, expertly manufactured in Italy, with commercially
attractive pricing structures.” Telfer said Hotbath will also be looking to work with the right retail partners in the UK: “We’re not trying to take on the world. We feel that the best way to develop our brand is with key UK partners who demand high-end luxury brassware. We aim for long-term partnerships that will be successful for all involved and start with a conversation.”
He added that Hotbath will be exclusive to showrooms and will not be sold online: “Our route to market will be bricks-and-mortar showrooms. We will protect customers who partner Hotbath with a strict ‘no-online’ policy.” On stock availability, Telfer said: “We have high stock levels of colour finishes at HQ, just outside Rotterdam. We will be opening a UK depot late spring 2023 to service the UK and Irish markets.
BRC welcomes new business rates cuts for retailers but says more reforms still needed
THE BRC has welcomed the cut in business rates for retailers from April but added that the need to reform the “broken” system was “far from over”. The BRC was responding to
a Treasury press release saying that business rates for retailers would fall by 20% from April 1. This follows the measures outlined by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in his Autumn Statement to ensure businesses pay a fair share. BRC
chief executive Helen
rise and fall with the changes in the economy, Business Rates must be paid in full whether firms are making a profit or a loss. This makes Business Rates a final nail in the coffin of many
struggling stores –
shutting shops, costing jobs and preventing new openings. Any meaningful plan for the future
of system at its heart.” Dickinson
com mented: “The Government took an essential step towards longer-term reform of the broken Business Rates system by the scrapping of downwards phasing of transitional relief. Finally, retailers are paying only what they owe, rather than overpaying their rates bill even when the value of their property had already fallen. Yet the need for Business Rates reform is far from over, and the changes made in the budget are a far cry from the fundamental reform promised in 2019.
“The broken Business Rates system is a
drag on investment, jobs, and the vibrancy of town and city centres. For example, while other business taxes like Corporation Tax and VAT
Business rates relief for eligible retail businesses will be extended and increased from 50% to 75% from April 1, up to £110,000 per business in 2023/24. It is estimated this will save the retail sector around £2.1 billion. With regard to the transitional relief scheme, bill increases caused by changes in rateable values will be capped at 5% for small, 10% for medium and 30% for large properties. Measures also provide relief for the more than 800,000 small businesses that will lose eligibility for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rates Relief, capped at £600 a year. The business rates multipliers will be frozen at 49.9p and 51.2p, which amounts to a tax cut of around £9.3bn.
• April 2023 our town and city
centres must have wholesale reform of our Business Rates
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