6 minute read
SUPPORTING KBB INSTALLERS THROUGH A CHALLENGING ERA
SUPPORTING KBB INSTALLERS
THROUGH THE INDUSTRY’S MOST CHALLENGING ERA
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Elizabeth Briggs, Category Manager Sliding, Room & Building, Häfele UK
The last six months has been a time of reflection, adaptation and flexibility. As we all navigate new ways of working within social distancing and fresh health and safety rules, many businesses are coping with all kinds of increased pressures, from getting new business in and being able to complete projects, to having fewer team members and trying to adapt to the ever-changing legislation and guidelines.
We know there’s been a lot of pressure when it comes to resourcing, business operations, and delivering projects on time for our customers. Though Häfele has, like you, experienced a huge amount of change in the ways we operate, our priority has been to help our customers during these challenging times and make it as easy as possible for them to continue to work.
To make sure we’re offering the best possible services and solutions, we’ve spoken to our customers throughout lockdown to understand the hurdles that stand in the way of continuity, and how we can make changes of our own to help you work effectively and safely. Essentially, we’ve prioritised helping you achieve a new level of normal.
The pandemic may have impacted a lot of things about our personal and professional lives, but one thing always remains; whether you’re looking for technical, specification or design support, we’re here as an extension of your team. So, to help you secure new projects and continue growing your business during this new era, we’ve brought together some of our services and products to help you in these challenging times. The pandemic may have impacted a lot of things about our personal and professional lives, but one thing always remains; whether you’re looking for technical, specification or design support, we’re here as an extension of your team.
Häfele Here to Help
Whether you need to refine project plans so that they meet a customer’s changing budgets or find ways to improve the overall design and aesthetic of a project to maximise customer satisfaction, we’re here to help you.
We recently launched Häfele Here to Help, a dedicated package of support for our industry. Designed and delivered in response to feedback from customers who shared their Covid-19-related industry concerns with us, the programme will help installers, joiners and manufacturers to increase sales and enquiries, as well as deliver projects on time and on budget despite the financial, operational and logistical challenges presented by the pandemic.
To help customers who require extra support to plan future projects with confidence, the package includes a price freeze on all products for the rest of 2020. Additionally, it brings together a number of existing, value added services to make the design, specification and ordering process as easy as possible. This includes our free-of-charge Lighting Design Service, which allows users to see different options on how integrated LED lighting can transform furniture, units and other products. It also incorporates Häfele to Order, a bespoke, made-to-order manufacturing service that allows customers to order personalised packed and, in the case of lighting, assembled and tested products for their project, saving time and improving efficiencies when installing and fitting products.
Sliding door gear: technical specification support
The pandemic has made it more important than ever for homes to be multifunctional, with our properties now being used for everything from working and learning, to exercising and relaxing. Homeowners are looking at the changes they can make to facilitate this new level of flexibility and as a result, we’re seeing increased demand for sliding door gear.
When not in use, sliding doors allow families to create larger, open plan areas for socialising, but can later be closed as a way to break up a space and create smaller, more private areas, such as home offices.
Every sliding door system is made up of a track, rollers and guide, but there are several technical elements to consider to ensure you get the right hardware, materials and specification to suit your customer’s project. To support this and make the ordering of sliding door systems as easy as possible, we’ve launched a new technical support service.
Starting off with the dimensions of the open space you want to fill, you can then use our sliding door calculator to determine the size and weight of door you need to install. From here, give our Technical Team a call. Using both those calculations, they will specify the best system for the application, will help you decide what material would be best suited to the system and discuss options such as whether the door could be motorised. Then, you could also use Häfele to Order to deliver the door’s associated components, such as the track and rollers, cut to exact measurements.
In one quick phone call, you’ll be able to order from a huge range of the most popular When not in use, sliding doors allow families to create larger, open plan areas for socialising, but can later be closed as a way to break up a space and create smaller, more private areas.
sliding door systems available to the exact specification required for your customer, and with the addition of Häfele to Order it’ll reach you as a single, pre-assembled set.
Free Space Flap
We know that our customers are always on the lookout for fixtures and fittings which give more options when it comes to the style and functionality of furniture, so we’ve launched a flap fitting with that in mind.
The Free space flap fitting promises to set a new standard in furniture design, planning, and production. It creates more storage room within cabinetry, by eliminating the need for large cover caps, and has an internal installation depth of only 63mm. It’s installed using a single pre-mounted conventional screw connection on the side walls, which will make the building of cabinetry a much more efficient and speedy process.
Free space has a pin system, which requires only one fixing screw to lock the flap in place. Its spring force can be adjusted for a multi-position stop function and it has an integrated soft closing mechanism to ensure gentle and quiet closing of the flap. The opening angle can be set and limited to 90° with a tool-free, integrated adjustment option, which allows the cabinet to be installed at an elevated height without risk of the door hitting the ceiling.
The Free space is available in five model versions which have a load bearing capacity between 1.2kg up to 10.7kg, and comes in white, light grey and anthracite as standard, and black as part of a special order product. It can also be matched to any cabinet colour to create a seamless finish.
This is the first time Free space has been made available in the UK and will inspire installers to start thinking differently about hinge work.
As an agile manufacturer, we’ve used the pandemic as an opportunity to look at which services and products would most benefit our customers to help them get back to what they do best. And as the impact of COVID-19 continues to emerge in new ways, we’ll continue analysing what we can bring to market to support our industry in these turbulent times.
For more information on the packages available to support you throughout the pandemic and beyond, visit:
hafele.co.uk/hafele-here-to-help
