TBK Design | RETAILER PROFILE


Gary Parker,


showroom manager, TBK Design


Tiles feature prominently throughout the showroom


With almost 40 displays in the showroom, TBK has made sure it features a wide variety of styles and options. As Parker explains: “We have always said that we are prepared to take the challenge and be ahead of everyone else. We will take


All of the displays are tastefully dressed


Parker says that people do have trouble visualising how the extra-large slabs will look in a room, so TBK has a display that features them.


I ask him if more people are opting for the bigger slabs these days. “One hundred per cent,” he confirms. “We started doing the big tiles around six years ago and people were frightened of them back then. People have grown


August 2022 ·


more confident in them over time and the results that can be achieved. You can take eight of them and do an entire bathroom. And you have one joint per wall – and people always have issues with grout because it discolours. For ages, the Italians have been telling us that big tiles make small rooms look bigger. And people are now realising that is true.”


chance. It may not work, but we want to be different.


“Something that Steve [Joel] has instilled in me managing this showroom is never to be afraid to try something – and if it doesn’t work, change it. That is how we have always operated and it has served us very well. It makes us different from other showrooms.” One thing struck me as operations manager Daniel Gold was taking me on my tour – there were no WCs in the displays. “There is a reason,” confides Parker. “In the old showroom, we had WCs in each display. When Steve and I went off to exhibitions, none of the


the


stands showing sink units had any WCs. And the reason is, if you don’t have to allocate a space for a WC, you can put in a bigger sink unit, which makes it look more luxurious. You can always sell down to a smaller unit, but it is very hard to sell up from a smaller one. “And truthfully, the sink unit and the tiles are the two most important things in the room.”


Parker continues: “When we sit down with a client and design their bathrooms, the first thing we get them to choose is the tiles, then the vanity unit or sink unit. They set the style for the bathroom. A WC is never a statement piece and generally you try to put it where you will see it least. “So we found that by putting our WCs all in one place, it was easy to take a client and say, choose one.” What also struck me was that


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