6 minute read
Reasons to be cheerful
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL -1-2-3!
With all the recent political and industry doom and gloom, there’s some good news at last! The BiKBBI is proud to announce that THREE established industry brands have pledged themselves to the institute by becoming corporate sponsors.
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In the biggest endorsement to date of the BiKBBI and its core pillars, three leading industry players have pledged their support since The Installer magazine’s spring issue which was published at the back end of April.
First to commit back in May was bathroom industry stalwart Roman. Roman has been one of the UK’s leading manufacturer of shower enclosures and screens for many years, with groundbreaking designs that area as installer driven as enduser and after-sales-service support that’s hard to better.
Based in Durham, Roman has been designing and manufacturing showering solutions for over 34 years with all products designed and created in Britain, offering the ultimate in quality, precision and craftsmanship. Roman's diverse and versatile collection of products encompasses something for every style and shape bathroom, no matter what the budget.
Roman’s range comprises Luxury Shower Enclosures, Bath Screens, Wetroom Panels, Walk- in’s, Shower Trays and Accessories. Its latest new products are focussed on its highly popular ‘Liberty’ 10mm and 8mm range.
Speaking on the BiKBBI sponsorship, David Osbourne, Managing Director, commented, "We’ve been increasingly impressed with the activity of BiKBBI over recent months and years and their membership growth is itself a testament to their aims and objectives. We share their vision for education and communication at all levels of our industry and of course, we have a mutual interest in driving compliance and product standards.”
David Osbourne, Managing Director, Roman
Hot on the heels of Roman came impressive and fast growing CAD organisation, Compusoft who became the first software company to champion the organisation responsible for standards, education and compliance,
Compusoft is celebrating its 30th birthday this year and provides a range of market leading software solutions in connection with kitchen, bedroom and bathroom design and KBB business management.
Compusoft is a global organisation with some 24 subsidiaries in 16 countries and has more than 400 fulltime employees servicing its customers. It boasts software development teams in Norway, UK, France, Germany, Belgium and South Africa.
Compusoft, MD Alexander Ainge commented on the three-year corporate sponsorship by saying: "We recognise the important role that design software plays in educating the KBB industry, having supported retailers since 1989. We have identified that design software is pivotal in the installation process. This new relationship with BiKBBI ensures we can offer
Alexander Ainge, MD, Compusoft
our services, expertise and support to a wider audience.” Alexander concluded, “This new partnership with the BiKBBI demonstrates the importance of installation within the future development of our product.”
The third company that has agreed a sponsorship with the BiKBBI is the vast Kitchen Bathroom Buying Group (KBBG), who is a part of Europe’s leading kitchen and bathroom buying group DER KREIS.
DER KREIS claims to be Europe’s largest kitchen and bathroom buying group, with thirty five years’ experience in supporting independent kitchen and bathroom retailers. With nearly 3,000 members, in nine countries, DER KREIS brings together kitchen and bathroom retailers who value their independence, but also appreciate the many advantages that come with working in partnership.
The KBBG offers UK independent kitchen retailers help and support by offering combined buying power conditions from leading European and UK suppliers, as well as access to unique private label kitchen furniture ranges, which is only available to KBBG members. Many suppliers also offer members regular, exclusive promotions and discounted offers.
The KBBG sponsorship of the BiKBBI will give KBBG members access to the association’s approved installers. This will afford members an excellent new resource in order to better manage kitchen installations and make them more costeffective.
Bill Miller, Managing Director, KBBG commented: “It is a great pleasure and a superb opportunity to support an organisation that promotes and improves standards in our industry. Our business is focused solely on the independent kitchen specialist retailer, and this sponsorship creates a very positive connection for the benefit of our members. We hope that by working together this will help make life easier with the benefit of managing time and costs successfully.”
KBBG has been established in the UK for six years and the membership numbers are growing at an exponential rate every year. With the buying power of over 3,000 members this creates a serious collaborative trading benefit that the group is able to provide and the sponsorship of the BiKBBI gives its members another tremendous benefit and endorsement of the business.
Bill Miller, Managing Director, KBBG
BiKBBI CEO Damian Walters said “These are truly exciting times for the BiKBBI; the speed of growth that we are experiencing could never have been imagined by many of us in those early days when we founded the organisation. What satisfies me most however, is when big established brands commit themselves to becoming sponsors, it acts as an endorsement of our principles which cascades down to our members giving them added kudos as they go about their day-to-day business.
Collectively these three brands add huge weight to our organisation at a time when we are actively lobbying MP’s to better support our industry but individually, each new sponsor brings something a little different to our membership. In the case of Roman, not only will we benefit of it being a great brand that is well respected within our industry, it’s a business that very much operates ethically and to the very highest standards. We’re incredibly proud that Roman has committed to sponsorship and we look forward to working with the team, especially on the subject of CE Marking and the importance of product compliance messaging with our membership.”
With regards to Compusoft, we couldn’t be happier that it has stepped in to support our aims. This is a forward thinking global business with a proven track record of delivering success is the first of its kind to support our objectives. Of course is strongly involved with KBB retailers and the company’s strength in this area will help provide a conduit between our installer membership and our retailer membership which we want to grow, especially through our ‘Protected’ initiative.
Finally, there’s KBBG which is a great addition to the BiKBBI and its collaboration with us will allow its member retailers to signpost customers to a robust installation service, which is either delivered by the retailers own approved installers, the wider BiKBBI membership or a mixture of both. Essentially, the service takes the retailer out of the contractual equation, connecting consumers with installers nationally, creating a robust direct legal relationship, to include contracts, schedules, pricing and payments.”
Damian Walters CEO, BiKBBI
