JOB SEEKERS CLUB

USED KITCHEN COMPANY LAUNCHES TWO GREEN AWARENESS EVENTS

The Used Kitchen Company (TUKC) is pushing the recycling message with two new green awareness events – No Skip Sunday on March 28 and Kitchen Passport Week, which kicks off on May 17.

These initiatives will be publicised through TUKC’s website, social media channels and through retailers.

The inaugural No Skip Sunday takes place on the Sunday when the clocks skip forward (March 28), and is intended to raise awareness about recycling old kitchens to ensure they do not end up in a skip and then go to landfill. This day is also six days after Earth Day and is said to be mark the start of DIY season as spring starts.

Kitchen Passport Week will aim to encourage kitchen retailers and customers to create a TUKC Kitchen Passport. The ‘passport’ is similar to a car’s logbook with details about when the kitchen’s materials and components were made and how these parts can be recycled.

The weeklong event will run from May 17 each year, as this is the Saints Day of San Pasqual, the patron saint of kitchens.

TUKC chief executive Looeeze Grossman said: “We wish to continue to set the agenda in our used kitchen sector and get everyone talking about the conscientious thing to do when it comes to buying or selling a kitchen. “We want to get to the stage where everyone thinks twice before just replacing a kitchen without recycling the one they already have. These awareness days will help us to drive the conversation and achieve this goal.”

Retailers can get involved with the events by either encouraging their customers to use the TUKC services of the kitchen reselling website and get a kitchen passport for their kitchen, or to use the service themselves when updating their showroom.

Grossman believes that lockdown is an opportunity to change displays or become passport partners. She said: “Now is the ideal time for showrooms to proceed with any changes of displays they may be planning in 2021. Lockdown also presents them with the opportunity to work with Kitchen Passport and create passports for all the kitchens they have sold and are selling.

“When they become Kitchen Passport partners, they can use the initiative’s green logos and stickers for promotional purposes. Consumer research tells us that eco principles are vital for the future success of businesses. Kitchen Passport is a very easy route to take, if you wish to boost your green credentials and add some futureproofing to your business by doing so.”

ROCA ACQUIRES 75% STAKE IN BATHROOM FURNITURE COMPANY ROYO GROUP

The Roca Group has taken a 75% stake in Royo Group, a Valenciabased bathroom furniture company.

The Royo family still holds 25% of the company’s capital, while Roca has purchased 62% from American fund HIG and a further 13% from Royo.

Royo Group had a turnover of €95 million (£84m) in 2019 and employs 793 people across its three production plants in Spain and Poland and two innovation centres.

Roca will now have its global bathroom furniture development centre based in Valencia. This move is part of the group’s strategy to set up specialised centres for different product categories in the bathroom.

Roca Group Chief Executive Albert Malgrans said: “With this alliance, we reinforce the bathroom furniture category, key in our sector, with the European leader, with whom we share the business vision and with whom we have collaborated closely over the past 10 years. This merger will allow us to further increase our competitiveness in the bathroom space and achieve the world’s leadership in this segment.” Raúl Royo, CEO at Royo Group, said: “[It is] a great strategic alliance through a joint venture between the two companies that reinforces the maximum possible commitment between both parties.

“The agreement with Roca, one of the largest Spanish industrial groups and a leader in the bathroom business worldwide, will help us to jointly build an even more leading and innovative company, accumulating almost 150 years of history in the bathroom sector between the two families.”

This alliance, said Roca Group and Royo, will “create a world leader in bathroom furniture”. It will have a global turnover of more than €173m in the furniture segment and a production of close to two million units per year in nine production centres in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, China and Brazil.

Roca Group has 81 production centres and operates in 170 countries with a workforce of 24,000 worldwide. In 2019, it recorded a turnover of €1.86 billion.