Shopfloor RETAILER PROFILE: VAMA LIVING Our showcase events were designed to


really expand our customer base, and these were also supported by full-blown marketing. We employed an external marketing agency to create more content and help us get in front of more people. So they put our ideas into practice and they feel like an extra arm to our business, which has started to have a real impact. Thankfully all our new branding coincided with the launch of our re-built website as well, so that goes some way to explain to people what we are about. But of course the real ‘wow factor’ hits when you visit the store in person.


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Smeg was a brand that we really wanted to do more with but previously we had only sold it through distribution, but Sirius gave us that route in that we’d never had before.


Q: And why did you want to work


specifically with Smeg? PM: We have a lot of experience with Italian brands – they’re all about the design and the touch and feel experience – and Smeg is no different. Their product is so inviting, people just can’t help themselves. There are only five Smeg Premio Partner kitchen studios in the UK, so it’s a very exclusive club, which immediately sets us apart. And that’s our mantra – we want to be different, we don’t just want to be run-of-the-mill. One of the most significant benefits is being able to offer the five- year parts and labour warranty on all MDA – that’s a direct benefit for our customer, plus the free delivery. The support and


strength of the


partnership with Smeg translates so positively to the customer; especially as a kitchen showroom, people can see the logic of getting everything for their kitchen all in one place. From a design and planning perspective we’ve got


that


since then it’s been similarly steady. Fortunately our customer demographic doesn’t appear to be too affected by current economic conditions At the moment we sell one full kitchen a month, but our aim is to get to two a month. The values are so high and there’s great margin in kitchens. We do worktops, appliances, sinks and taps and the combination that we have is a marriage of different styles where the Italian brands excel with contemporary designs and Laura Ashley caters to classic British tastes. Buying a kitchen, or indeed anything for the home, is a very hands-on experience; people come to us and get a very personalised service, and I think the brands that we offer suggest that’s what they’ll get. By selling F&B we get such a mix of customers come through the door and this opens up so many other avenues for us. We have also started working with more interior design clients; there was one particular customer in Cheshire who wanted a new Laura Ashley kitchen and it turned out to be the brand’s biggest individual kitchen sale to date!


integral knowledge to satisfy the whole customer purchase.


Q: How have you found the kitchen market in recent years? How is your customer base affected by market conditions and the cost-of-living crisis etc? PM: As a business we’ve had all these fits and starts; 2021-22 was our best financial year after we joined Sirius and


Q: Do you have any plans for the business in the year ahead? PM: Since we brought these brands on board our direction and our focus has completely changed. We used to try and be all things to all men, selling different kinds of kitchens at all kinds of price points, but we’ve moved away from that now and redefined what our targets are – which are to hold and supply aspirational products to a clientele that is responsive to that area.


Vama and Smeg


Tim Taylor, Business Development Manager – Independent Electrical Retail at Smeg UK, comments: “Vama is a small business that offers a very personal service. Very much design orientated, the Smeg aesthetics sit alongside the retailer’s furniture offering of contemporary Italian Vama Cucine and traditional English Laura Ashley. Philip and Tobias are quick to adopt new Smeg technology, such as Omnichef and SpeedwaveXL as well as the HOBD vents hobs.


“They have both attended training at our Abingdon head office and they are frequently on the phone to check details, which ensures their customers are able to make informed decisions and end up with an appliance, and a kitchen, which best fits their needs.”


Pictured left: Clare Edwards, Head of Training & Customer Events at Smeg, hosts the pizza evening at Vama in September.


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