INDUSTRY CRISIS WARNING

CEO PREDICTS SKILLS SHORTAGE

STARK WARNING TO INDUSTRY AT PARLIAMENTARY EVENT

At its tenth anniversary reception, held at The Houses of Parliament last week, iKBBI CEO Damian Walters expressed his concern over a UK skills gap within the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom installation sector and said he feared an inevitable crisis as installer numbers are already failing to meet growing retail sales demands.

He stated, “Without a nationally available KBB installation apprenticeship, the industry is missing out on a generation of young talent, who are already choosing other trades over KBB installation” he continued, “A combination of tough economic trading conditions, a lack of training, and no cohesive approach to tackling the subject will inevitably lead to a shortage of installers over the next few years and I fear it’s a situation that we wont be able to avoid.”

Guest speaker Dean Weston, Chief Commercial Officer at Bathstore, shared the concern by saying that installation numbers had doubled over recent years, yet installer recruitment “remained a challenge” he said, “We’re fortunate enough to have taken the Bathstore business model to Qatar, however it is a land without labour. This rich nation is willing and financially able to spend on luxury goods, yet there’s no workforce to meet the demand and unfortunately, I can foresee the UK following suit as my generation chose the dot-com revolution over bricks and mortar. Our partnership with the iKBBI is crucial, not only for our success, but also for the well-being of the wider industry.”

Fellow guest speaker Katherine Newton, Installation Manager at John Lewis Partnership explained how the iKBBI has supported the recent re-launch of their bathroom installation proposition, 

by saying, “The iKBBI supported the recruitment process enormously at every level and the institute has proven a very useful resource for our business because as you can imagine, we focus on working only with the best installers in the marketplace.”

The iKBBI used the Parliamentary event to discuss its own strategy on tackling the skills gap issue, with CEO Walters using a farming analogy to describe the steps they’re taking to address the situation. “Preparing the soil is where it starts” stated Walters, “We’re already working with secondary schools and those in years 9-11 who are at the stage of deciding upon their future. It’s crucial we get kids excited about the prospect of a career that can be both rewarding and really quite enjoyable.”

Damian continued, “We’ll then work on sowing the seeds and this is where our pioneering work with PROCAT [Prospects College of Advanced Technology] comes into its own. Developing a nationally available and relevant apprenticeship is crucial to the future success of the KBB industry and is something we all need to get behind.”

The iKBBI also launched its new iAcademy at the event, with Walters grouping the initiative with the farming analogy by calling this phase “nurturing the crop”. Damian said, “As well as attracting new prospective young installers into the industry, we must also develop those time served professionals who already operate in the sector. The industry, products and legislation have changed enormously over the last 20 years and continue to do so. Our new online training portal, delivered in conjunction with CTSi [Chartered Trading Standards Institute] brings quality and affordable training to the industry, recognising the time constraints tradespeople face. Installers can learn online, gain relevant knowledge, a commercial edge over competitors and do so at their own pace.”

To conclude the farming analogy, the iKBBI also unveiled its “harvesting the crop” initiative in the form of a new iKBBI Skills Bank which will be an online portal for installers to register their interest in working within the industry. The database of installers, already home to over 1,000 installers looking for new installing opportunities within the retail sector will be exclusively available to iKBBI Installation Standards Partners.”

The iKBBI announced that blue-chip industry brand and long term supporter of the institute Blum, has pledged a threeyear sponsorship of the iAcademy, which compliments its own ethos on installer training & development.

The iKBBI also used its Parliamentary reception to reveal even more breaking news with an announcement of a new and exciting relationship with UK charity ‘Care after Combat’, a charity that’s dedicated to the support of military veterans and their families. Damian said: “This initiative will involve retraining a group of disciplined people, introducing them to the industry and opening up opportunities for them to retrain as KBB installers. Many industry leaders view veterans as their number one choice for recruitment and we share their opinion.”

Damian brought the event to its conclusion by thanking the institutes members, partners, sponsors and supporters and said: “We should all be viewing installation as a top priority. Whether you’re a manufacturer, supplier, distributor, retailer or sales person, professional installation is crucial to the future success of our industry. We should all pull together and ensure that we’re tackling the problem as a collective, and therefore invite you all to collaborate for the benefit of us all in this important market sector.”