Industry News
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Bigger venue for kbbreview Retail & Design Awards as demand for seats soars The kbbreview Retail & Design Awards has a brand new venue thanks to an overwhelming industry demand for seats and tables. The event, which will still take place on September 15, will now be held in the spectacular and iconic Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, one of the UK’s most recognisable landmarks. The previous venue sold out within hours of the event being announced and in the weeks that followed the waiting list grew and grew. “When we finally decided to move the date to September and hold the full real, live awards event, we had no idea what the response of the industry would be,” said kbbreview managing editor Andrew Davies. “The cathedral was our first choice, as it is just such an astonishing place, but it holds a LOT of people. So we erred on the side of caution and went for the smaller venue. But after we announced it, it became very clear, very quickly, that we should have gone with Plan A!”
The new venue opens up the opportunity for more people to book seats and tables who may have been disappointed when the previous location sold out so quickly. “This is the biggest postlockdown industry party and now it’s got even bigger,” Davies said. “We want to see as many people there as possible celebrating the creativity and ingenuity that got us all through
the lockdowns. But, even though out capacity is bigger, it’s not unlimited, so get in quick to make sure you don’t miss out again!” The kbbreview Retail & Design Awards is the biggest and longest-running awards event in the UK kitchen and bathroom industry. You can find out more about how the awards, judging, finalists and previous winners at www.kbbreview.com/awards
BC Designs expands to meet surge in demand Colchester-based bath manufacturer, BC Designs, has expanded its operation with the introduction of a new 75sq m workshop in a bid to meet growing demand from its retail network. In a statement, the company said that the new workshop would allow the company to increase stock levels by up to 35%. In addition, a new paint facility has also been added to allow it to improve lead times on its painting service. Speaking about the brand’s key expansion managing director, Darren Allison, said: “The pandemic has provided the opportunity for us to re-access and refocus our business strategy and we’ve renewed our focus on delivering the highest quality customer service. “The new workshop will allow us to shorten lead times across our product portfolio as we are able
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to hold more stock. We’ve also seen an increase in demand for our painting service as colour continues to be a key driver within bathroom trends. Our new facility will increase our output by over 30%. “The new workshop marks
another great milestone in BC Designs’ history. The whole team is excited about the post-Covid 19 chapter as we look to continue our growth through developing even deeper relationships with our customers, along with exciting product launches that are planned later this year.”
Quooker ramps up support for kbbreview Save Our Skills campaign Quooker has shown its commitment to supporting the industry by extending its sponsorship of the kbbreview Save Our Skills Campaign until the end of September. The kbbreview Save Our Skills campaign is once again allowing any employer in the KBB industry to post job vacancies on kbbreview.com for free. Thanks to the ongoing support from Quooker, the initiative will continue for at least the next four months. “I’m delighted that Quooker has committed to supporting this important initiative again so that we can continue to offer the industry free job ads,” said kbbreview managing editor Andrew Davies. “To see so many businesses recruiting again after the challenges of the last year is fantastic and we want to play our part in spreading such a positive message.” The kbbreview Save Our Skills campaign was launched in spring 2020 as the coronavirus situation began to lead to many redundancies within the KBB sector. The aim was to keep the skills and experience these people possess within the industry if possible. It has been supported by Quooker from the beginning. The move in emphasis of the campaign coincides with a noticeable drop in the number of redundancies hitting the industry and a sudden rise in vacancies being advertised.
