As another successful kbb Birmingham at the NEC has drawn to a close, our marketing manager Alex Fuidge reveals what set us apart from many others at the show.

So, you can find out more about our stand design right here. In addition, you’ll see a snapshot of the incredible product portfolio we revealed this year, from new appliances, sinks & taps to kitchen furniture.

Well, in 2019, we knew we needed to look for a new theme to wow our customers, existing and new. So, we decided to embrace the trend for Japandi (Japanese and Scandinavian) design. This is one of the strongest design elements set to dominate interiors this year. So, it made perfect sense to reflect this on our stand. Of course, new appliances, sinks & taps and kitchen furniture would all need to play a strong part in the design process.

So, we decided to design and create three realistic kitchens where simple elegance would be key. Each one would look very different to demonstrate the versatility our brand has to offer. This way, new and existing customers would walk onto the stand and imagine themselves enjoying three different luxury kitchens in a home-styled environment. Of course, our brand ambassador, Michelin star chef Josh Eggleton would be pivotal to the design process. So, it made perfect sense for Josh to devise a Japanese and British fusion menu for the show.

We joined forces with leading residential and commercial work surface fabricators Marble Building Products (MBP) thanks to the quality of the luxury stone they have to offer. We had already worked with MBP back in 2016, when they produced a collection of worktops for our luxury showroom and our stand at kbb Birmingham. Then, another collaboration with MBP followed in 2018 at the next kbb show, so we knew exactly what to expect. MBP is renowned for templating, manufacturing and installing bespoke worktops.

So, they were tasked with producing a collection of three stylish kitchen work surfaces for this show. This year, we saw exquisite 30mm textured granite, 20mm quartz and 12mm ceramic worktops, which complemented our kitchen furniture collections perfectly. Our reception desk was even clad in back-lit quartz to create a striking focal point for visitors.

Now, there were three kitchen displays, one of which included our Upton and Brava. Our furniture manager Doug Haswell chose this stylish design to reflect a truly sophisticated kitchen. The textured laminate, soft-close Brava doors featured a beautiful, new finish, antique gold, for a more, stylish on-trend kitchen design. In fact, these created the perfect contrast with the new Upton kitchen in this display, showcasing a beautiful Riptide in a gorgeous, on-trend, dark green and matt painted finish.

This colour is from our made-to-order portfolio. So, you can enjoy additional colours from our collection and can expect just a four to six-week lead time. For me, I loved the routered detailing on the slab doors, which have been cleverly designed to create a modern take on a traditional look. We also added gorgeous, new diamond-cut handles in brass to create a more luxurious finish, which tied in with the other gold aspects in this display and matched our new brass Joya 3-in-1 tap controls perfectly.

Wine Cabinets

You couldn’t miss our beautiful furniture-clad, integrated wine cabinet. After all, it’s only our second new appliance of its kind produced for the UK market. We actually designed our first model which is under-counter as a concept at the previous kbb show and it has been available ever since. You can even create a full-door if you prefer your entire wine collection to be hidden from view.

We also showcased an innovative wine cabinet, which we specifically designed with a fascia to match our existing Sense ovens collection. It lines up perfectly with our ovens range with a beautiful drop-down door featuring soft-close and opening. In fact, we found both achieved such a positive reaction from visitors.

It seems we also wowed the crowds with our cooker hood collection and our Vela hood took centre stage. Mentioned by journalist Katrina Burroughs in the Sunday Times after her visit to our stand at the show, this innovative model features three bang-on-trend finishes – gold, copper and black. It not only looks super stylish with a halo LED light but it performs incredibly well, too. Our in-house product development team designed this new appliance with plasma technology. So, this removes 95% of odours plus a charcoal filter to get rid of the extra 5% for complete extraction in the kitchen.

If you attended this year’s show, you couldn’t fail to see our new full-surface induction hob with smart pan detection. You can literally place up to six pans anywhere and the hob will adapt to the pan’s size. If you remove the pan then place it back anywhere on the glass surface, the hob will instantly recognise the pan. The hob will then continue to cook at the same temperature. In addition, if you set the timer for that zone, the hob will also recall this information wherever the pan is then placed. Aren’ t these aspects genius? I particularly like the full colour touch screen featuring TFT, LCD and touch technology, which make it so easy to use.

Of course our signature cafe, serving teas and coffees using our very own coffee machines to all our visitors, never fails to disappoint. This year, we found our Japanese-inspired Zen garden was perfect for business meetings. It also became an ideal retreat to simply relax away from the buzz of the show.