Page 27 - HW August 2020

kitchens & bathrooms
DEMAND FOR SPECIALISTS
Turning to the kitchen & bathroom design specialists, on behalf of the New Zealand National Kitchen & Bathroom Association (NKBA), Executive O cer Suzie Rees says her members are also seeing good growth, post-lockdown.
“ e designers that we’ve been speaking to here in Christchurch and in Auckland seem to be really busy.
“ ere’s also all the work that was in the pipeline, pre- lockdown, so people are busy catching up post that.
“At the moment we’re certainly seeing growth in the mid- to high-end range and people seem to be really busy.”
By way of quali ying this aspect, although the sky’s the limit, cost-wise, as a guide in 2019 the majority of NKBA members were working with budgets of $20-40,000.
Will Suzie Rees share an outlook? “I hope it continues! Hopefully we’ll be able to crack on with people not spending budgets going travelling. But certainly the tone and a feel out in the industry seem very buoyant.”
What’s more, as a group, the specialist members of the NKBA are not only in good spirits and good health but their numbers are also growing, she con rms.
ose undertaking training for example continue to
grow, with participation from traditional NKBA design and manufacturing members, as well as the likes of Mitre 10 and some who are new to kitchens & bathrooms and who are retraining, perhaps having lost a di erent job or even business.
What’s more, the recent green light on Government funding (“great to see that Government support!” says Suzie Rees) will be another useful llip towards further formal upskilling of the people working in the kitchen & bathroom business.
With another record number of entries for 2020, the NKBA’s annual awards are another indicator against which to judge the health of specialist kitchen & bathroom design and manufacturing.
Take it as a positive that although Suzie Rees can reveal the NKBA Awards’ lower end categories are “a bit thinner on the ground” this year, this is balanced out by entries into the renovation category, which she says is “outstanding”.
ere’s also a strong showing from rst-time entrants. “It’s really good to be able to see new blood enter the industry,” says Suzie.
“When I rst came on board in 2012, there was just no young people coming into the industry and, with our ‘baby boomers’ coming up to retiring age but struggling to slow down, it’s just really good to see healthy numbers of students coming through.”
“We need depth as well as the breadth of experience and freshness because, let’s face it, young ones bring in new knowledge!”
BUSY-AS IN THE TRADE?
Turning to the trade and PlaceMakers, the apparent upsurge in demand for major home renovations is no surprise to Kitchens Category Manager, Liz Aitken
“Generally, when there’s not so many new homes being built, people go into renovations,” she says.
What has perhaps raised the odd eyebrow (mine at least!) is
that both homeowners and the trade have been driving demand for kitchen & bathroom installed solutions from PlaceMakers.
In fact, Liz puts demand for installed solutions versus “cash & carry” at around 70:30, but again that’s no surprise for the blue sheds.
Indeed: “ at’s a market we’ve been driving for,” says Liz, adding that securing referrals are a key driver of PlaceMakers’ installed solutions programme.
In the light of this, I ask “How do you choose your installers?” “With di culty,” is the response...
What’s the temperature of the market – up or down,
dollar-wise?
Liz Aitken says by way of reply that the biggest movement
she’s seeing at the moment is towards solid surface benchtops, Caesar Stone, Prime Stone etc, which shows that “people are wanting a quality item”.
Is that move towards high quality price points being re ected in bathrooms?
Yes it is, according to PlaceMakers’ Assistant Category Manager, Rebecca Collier-York: “People also want a solid top in their vanities now. We can do custom vanities now so you choose your vanity and benchtop nish and then add a vessel on top.
Mitre 10 takes a
“family” approach
to new tapware displays
Sometimes you can have just too much choice – look at the average range of light bulbs in a DIY store for example.
And in terms of kitchen & bathroom, Mitre 10 for one is setting about making the consumer’s choice easier with new tapware displays that are rolling out nationally.
The new tapware display walls have been designed to merchandise “families” together, separating kitchen mixers from bathroom mixers, with a wide array of colour choices.
Mitre 10’s Merchandise Manager Showrooms, Theresa Humphreys, believes this initiative is “really going to inspire our customers” – as well as tempt them upwards in the value chain.
“We went back to basics with our whole tapware range, looked at where consumer demand was leading and also how to make it easier shopping [and] better for customer experience.”
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AUGUST 2020 | NZHJ 25