RETAILER PROFILE | Premiere Klasse


Striking basin and vanity


from Puntotre in Italy


Dependon’s client profile had


changed, dealing with more high- profile clients for whom the kitchens they would previously buy from Howdens were perhaps no longer the best choice.


“Rich and I sat down and had the idea of doing it ourselves, as our biggest headache was the supply chain. [We wanted] to provide the right product for our clientele and not be at the mercy of suppliers. Before, when we recommended suppliers to our developer clients, if there were problems we took the blame. I had all the headaches, but I wasn’t taking the profit from selling the products. I was also helping with the designs, but again not profiting off it. I was also doing their surveying.”


First showroom


So in 2018 they started looking at some small units for a showroom. “Initially we were looking at premises of 2,000 to 3,000sq ft,” recalls Tolbod, “then we looked at 6,000sq ft and just as we were nearly signed off on a building, our agent said he had a former Range Rover and Jaguar showroom in Basingstoke that was empty and available immediately, so we took it. And that’s how it escalated to 10,500sq ft. There we are next to BMW and Mercedes dealerships, opposite Topps Tiles and there is a Starbucks and a Greggs, and there’s lots of traffic. It pulls in the right demographic.” In the Basingstoke showroom they have 30 bathroom and nine kitchen displays, and they are all full settings. They also have a special area with samples and brochures where clients can make their own mood boards. Ascot, on the other hand, boasts just seven bathroom settings and two kitchens. The main kitchen display is a large in-frame design that is entirely


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bespoke and made for them by Charles Yorke, while the second display is a contemporary handleless option, made for them in Germany. In Basingstoke, they also offer Kustom- house kitchens from Denmark. In


bathrooms, Premiere Klasse


offers a selection of carefully curated high-quality brands sourced from Europe and the UK. “We know the brands that we are comfortable with, that offer good service and quality, where we have a good relationship with the reps and manage- ment,” says Tolbod. “We know 99% of


the time we are not going to get a problem with them and if we do that there is a good service backup behind them. And the same as every other showroom, we have


access to Eastbrook, Q4, Ideal Bathrooms, so if someone wants a white acrylic tray, we can provide it, but it is not something we want to do. We are striving to be in the high-mid to high-end market.”


We work with seven or eight interior designers in the immediate area and a local architect – it is not so much clients coming in off the street


Basingstoke has about 80% walk-in trade, whereas in the Ascot showroom, most of their business comes from interior designers. “We work with seven or eight interior designers. In the immediate area where we are working, including Sunningdale and Wentworth, it is not so much the clients coming in off the street, it is their interior


designers.


We also work with the architects at the top of the road.” And size of show- room is not a factor for these clients, as Tolbod explains: “The interior des- igners come in here


and they can see enough. We have all the door samples. Interior designers don’t need to see 50 displays, they see that we can do what they need. And the Basingstoke studio is only 25 minutes away so they can meet us there to see everything we offer. As you go upmarket it is very interior designer-driven.” At the moment, Premiere Klasse in Ascot is selling around three to five kitchens a month and up to eight bathrooms. The average kitchen is between £30,000 and £80,000 and for their bathrooms it is £18k to £22k. Most bathrooms they sell are traditional or art deco and for kitchens it’s a 50:50 split between traditional and contemporary.


In terms of appliances, the Ascot showroom sells V-Zug, Novy and Liebherr, plus Quooker taps, although Basingstoke also has Siemens Studio Line, Gaggenau, Miele, Smeg, Rangemaster, Neff and Küppersbusch. Unusually, given the fact that it


serves quite an affluent area, Premiere Klasse offers finance, but so far there have been no takers. Tolbod says they will soon be revamping the showroom frontage with more plants and new signs and banners. And he adds that, looking to the future, the plan was always to have multiple showrooms. “We have clients we service from the Cotswolds to south London,” he tells me. “The next showroom will be a full luxury boutique, where we will be putting in brands that people haven’t heard of and that are exclusive to showrooms with not a single presence online. We are trying to mix things up a bit and keep that growth rolling. We have no plans of going inside the M25. There is too much competition there. We will look more on the outskirts, mainly down south up to the Cotswolds.”


· January 2023


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