NEWS | Round-up NEWS IN BRIEF
• Grohe has partnered with the World Architecture Festival and put up the £10,000 prize money for its Water Research Prize, which this year goes to the ‘Recycle Build Brazil’ research initiative. The winning project proposed sustainable architectural solutions for schools in the San Jose dos Campos area.
• Duravit has scooped five awards in the Innovative Architecture category of the German Design Council’s international Iconic Awards. Its SensoWash Starck F shower toilet won the Best of Best award, as did the Starck T accessory range and the new D.1 faucet line. Duravit’s stand at ISH also won an Iconic Award.
• Scottish-based Forth and Clyde Distribution is launching a promotion on Franke products until December 31. Customers can earn £10 from the sale of any Franke stainless steel sink, £5 on any tap and £5 on any waste disposer. Franke hoods will earn £20.
• HiB is celebrating success at the UK Customer Experience Awards, where it walked away with a bronze award in the ‘Employees at the Heart of Everything – Programme’ category. HiB was up against brands such as Aldi, Aviva, BT, EE and Sky.
• Sintered stone specialist Neolith is celebrating 10 years since it was founded by the Esteve brothers. Its surfaces have been used in Michelin-starred restaurants, skyscrapers and stadiums.
• Premium Italian appliance brand Bertazzoni has won contracts for its products to be used in more than 500 new properties in central London. They will be fitted with its four- and five-ring induction hobs, refrigerators and dishwashers. These will be its first contracts secured in the UK.
• PWS has released a Worksurfaces Collection brochure to showcase the surfaces it manufactures in County Durham. Using lifestyle imagery and large- scale photography, the brochure highlights its five best-selling colour collections, from white abstract veins to dappled greys across multiple material types.
• Franke’s new cooker hood brochure features 40 new models. The 42-pager brings its entire portfolio together into one selling tool. It is divided into hob extractors, downdraft, wall-mounted, island and ceiling-mounted variants.
8
New Roca Group UK HQ reflects its ‘ambitious plans’
SPANISH BATHROOM brand Roca has opened its new UK headquarters in Bardon, Leicestershire. The 145,000sq ft premises includes
a warehouse with 150% more pallet locations than in its previous UK base in Coalville. According to Roca UK, the additional storage space will allow it to offer a more efficient and faster delivery service to its network of distributors, merchants and retailers. It also has increased office and meeting room space and there are dedicated showroom facilities for all Roca UK brands – Roca, Laufen, Armani Roca and Cosmic.
Speaking at the launch event, Roca UK managing director Alan Dodds said: “Roca and Laufen brands are
growing strongly and the new site provides a tremendous opportunity to continue on this trajectory and accelerate our growth. It provide a central location
will for
also our
trade and retail partners to come and experience the whole spectrum of Roca UK products. We have the best team in the industry and these new state-of-the-art facilities reflect our ambitious plans.” • Meanwhile, Roca Group has announced two new appointments. Alberto Magrans has been named chief
as executive, following the
retirement of Ramon Asensio. Magrans has been with the business
for more than 20 years
and was previously senior managing director of Laufen – one of the group’s most successful global brands.
Roca Group UK managing director Alan Dodds said: “Alberto has been with the group for over 20 years, so he understands the group well. He is very commercially focused and very brand-focused and we’re very excited about the direction he’ll take the group.”
Antonio Linares has also been named as the new senior managing director for Laufen and the northern and central European Roca division and succeeds Magrans in that role as he becomes CEO. Linares has years of experience in the international sanitaryware market, having joined the Roca Group in 2003. He held several positions in corporate business development and marketing before becoming managing director of Laufen in Russia.
PWS launches new bedroom collection
DURHAM-BASED KBB distributor PWS has introduced a new trade-focused bedroom furniture range to its portfolio. Available in both complete and component form, as well as made-to-measure and sliding configurations, the PWS Bedroom Collection has been designed to expand PWS’s route to market and give trade customers easy access to a bedroom offering through their existing PWS accounts. Speaking exclusively to kbbreview about the launch,
Caroline Shepherd, bedroom category manager at PWS, said: “We recognised some time ago that there was a bigger market out there for bedrooms but that we weren’t able to tap into all customer types with our current offering. “Now, with our PWS Bedroom Collection we can
reach all of those different customers – from retailers to independent fitters who don’t have a showroom. The new bedroom range under the PWS umbrella really simplifies the ordering process for our customers and opens up massive opportunities for us in the bedroom market.” The new bedroom collection will sit alongside Kindred
Bedrooms, which remains the name of its consumer- facing bedroom brand.
PWS also announced details of the new Kindred
Bedrooms Partner Programme, which it hopes will further enhance its position in the market. Retail members benefit from a range of sales and marketing tools, including a presence on Kindred’s consumer website and dedicated brochures, alongside a
national marketing programme, designed to drive leads through to partner showrooms. “We’re delighted to have expanded our core product
offering to include bedrooms,” said Marc Holmes, group commercial director. “We’re committed to the continuous development of our core product portfolio and service proposition, and to always providing
market-leading,
flexible and meaningful solutions for all our customers. “It’s never been easier for our trade customers to create beautiful bedrooms for their customers.”
kbbreview · December 2019
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