BKUQ&A Q&A Meet the Sponsors


In our second Q&A this month highlighting the sponsors of the glittering BKU Awards, we are delighted to hear from Christopher Hackett, Managing Director of Classic Marble.


Tell us about your company The SENSTEC brand is a key part of our company, Classic Marble (Showers) Ltd, and is being used to sponsor the awards this year. Established in 1983, Classic Marble (Showers) Ltd is a second-generation family business based in Northern Ireland. For our first 25 years, all products manufactured were shower trays, before diversifying to manufacture the award winning ‘Classi’ bathroom waterproofing products. In recent years, we have further advanced our shower tray range to premium SENSTEC Anti- Slip Shower Trays including patented, industry leading, anti-slip technology. Our main target market is the bathroom


remodelling sector, supplying products directly to bathroom retailers and plumber’s merchants throughout the UK and ROI.


Classic Marble is a new sponsor of the Awards – why was it important for you to sponsor an award this year in particular? We are always keen supporters of industry events such as the BKU awards. Over the years, we have experienced many of the trials of bringing products to the market and would now like to give something back to the industry, both to help others with this and to recognise the hard work and achievements from so many different companies. As is the case with so many industry products, it is a combination from many companies that leads to the formation of a complete bathroom or kitchen. This should always be remembered as we support each other and the industry in general.


This year’s awards are our first carbon-neutral event – how important is sustainability to you (and the sector more widely)? Sustainability in its stripped back form is the most important factor for all businesses. We as a company are now in our 12th year of running the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard. It is fully embedded into our culture and as part of compliance with this global standard, we are externally audited once per year. This not only helps us comply with increasing stringent environmental laws and regulations, it has the added benefit of verifying our sustainability credentials to our customers. As a direct result we have included recycled materials into SENSTEC and also implemented processes internally to recycle and re-use production waste.


Consumer retail confidence is a hot topic these days – what can the KBB sector do to support consumers in their buying decisions? As many now have reduced money available for additional purchases, it makes every such purchase a bigger decision, with little room for error. With this in mind, we have to do everything we can to demonstrate to potential customers how we are providing a product that will do everything they require of it, with no problems, good value, and full support. Key to this is helping the consumer understand where the product came from and who made it, was it manufactured locally, and by a reputable company? We do this by providing excellent online


explanation of our products and their functionality, high levels of customer service, and various other supports relevant to each product. For example, with our SENSTEC Anti-Slip Shower Tray, it is possible to order samples of our products to ensure that they are right for you before having to make a purchase, and we provide a 10-year guarantee to back up our certainty on reliability.


2021 was a better year for the sector than some had perhaps forecast – how is 2022 shaping up? To this point 2022 is shaping up quite well, all things considered. Many companies in this sector will have increased turnover, but that isn’t the entire picture. Input prices are increasing at a rate that is not sustainable, so ‘caution ahead’ is perhaps a shrewd viewpoint. As a business we are fortunate to manufacture multiple products and have solid ties in NI, ROI and GB. Recently, we were winners of the FSB NI


Business & Product Innovation Awards. To have recognition of our efforts in both sales and operations is something we are very proud of and


hope to continue this level of performance moving forwards across all brands and markets.


Many consumers are still working from home, and this looks unlikely to change in the short term – is this reflected in the types of kitchen and bathroom products and services consumers are buying? As many people spend more time in their homes, they then spend more time seeing their home bathrooms and this often leads to thoughts of improvement. For this reason, higher numbers have been completely refurbishing such rooms, and putting much greater priority on functionality. Yes, style is important and must be a consideration, but functionality never grows old. We also noticed consumers quest for knowledgeable and online product research increasing, in particular to anti-slip shower trays. This led us to open up our Royal Institute of British Architects and Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland approved online training in all things relating to anti-slip shower trays to the public.


What is a key point in the operation of your company? One of the most important values to this company is our employees, and we put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that they are happy and well provided for. It is always our aim to give employees a workplace that they want to stay at, as shown by the fact that we have many who have been with us for multiple decades. This is not only about being a good employer,


but helps ensure that, when products are all hand finished at our factory, this is done by a group of experts with a strong desire to work to the highest standards possible. We believe this is shown in the pristine quality of everything we manufacture.


If you had to pick one thing that you think will make a positive difference to the KBB sector in the next year, what would it be? Price Stability.


What’s next on the horizon for Classic Marble that our readers should be aware of? We are always researching new concepts and areas of the industry that we believe can be improved. With our Classi brand and now SENSTEC we are gaining a great reputation for innovation, and this is something that will continue. Looking a little further down the line, it will be


our 40-year company anniversary next year and we plan to celebrate this in a number of exciting ways. Keep your eyes open to see what this will be!


BKU JUNE 2022 13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56