The Blum Story in New Zealand

Blum New Zealand began operations formally in July 2010 and is one of the leading architectural hardware supply companies both here in New Zealand and worldwide. Led by Managing Director Mike Hawkins from their purpose built site in Avondale, Auckland since that time, the company has gone ahead in leaps and bounds to this day. Blum’s presence in New Zealand goes back well before 2010 of course and it is an interesting story. Bob Nordgren has known Mike since the early days of the magazine in the mid 1990’s so it was with some pleasure to have Mike participate in this, our 100th issue by providing answers to some questions put to him.

There is quite a history to the Blum brand in New Zealand prior to Blum NZ being established in 2010. Tell us a bit about that and how you became involved with them.

Blum was “discovered” by Sanco, at a European trade fair in the 70’s. Back then, Sanco was a very typical kiwi family business. Quite diverse in that they were manufacturers, producing tooling for the primary timber industry, and importers of tooling and woodworking machines. Sanco started with Blum’s concealed hinges in 1972, which was exactly 20 years after Julius Blum founded the company. Over the years as Blum’s product range and popularity grew, and in parallel, so too did Sanco’s business. In the mid 90’s they took on more of the SCM Groups range, which is when I entered the picture.

I gave up my very relaxed lifestyle in Mount Maunganui; where when the surf allowed, I was contracting to British American Tobacco and moved to Auckland to join Sanco selling SCM woodworking machines. As much as it was a hardship to move from the “Mount” to Auckland, it was a fantastic opportunity for which I am eternally grateful. I’ve been very fortunate, I loved the job, I got to travel all over NZ and the world, and over the years I’ve met many I count as friends today. The machinery game was, and I’m sure still is extremely challenging, but rewarding. It was a difficult start. I think I went 6 or 8 months before I finally sold a machine. I’m lucky Stu had more patience than I have!

It took many more years to build sufficient knowledge and trust, to be able to consistently sell machines in such a competitive, high-value environment. Being involved with start up’s and seeing them grow into successful business’s, I particularly enjoyed. The boat building (super yacht) industry in its halcyon years was a real eye opener for a small town kiwi. The quality of the boats we produced for the international market was exceptional. Selling 5 axis CNC machines into this market and the America’s Cup racing industry, and seeing what they produced at an international level and some of the names behind this was particularly rewarding. In an effort to be totally transparent, I don’t miss edge banders at all.

As Sanco continued to grow in all directions, Blum, SCM and people it became too big for Mel and Stu to comfortably manage on their own. So they split the business into three, sold off the machinery and tooling business’s to concentrate solely on Blum. I stayed with SCM until 2009 when the opportunity came up to join Blum. Mel and Stu Sanders were approaching retirement age, and began discussions with Julius Blum to purchase their business. I know from Stu and Mel’s perspective; they wanted to see the business go to Blum. They knew the culture, they had a high level of trust with Gerhard Blum, and they knew the outcome for the staff would be good under Julius Blum’s ownership.

I joined Blum in October 2009, and initially spent time in Austria gaining an intimate understanding of the company, the culture and key people we would work with in the following years, planning for the ownership change the following year. Over the remaining eight months, we prepared for the takeover, and on the 1st of July 2010, Blum New Zealand began trading.

Blum had been successfully sold through an agency when Julius Blum in Austria decided to have its own presence here in New Zealand. What motivated them to do this?

The benefit Austria saw in buying Sanco, and taking control of the distribution in NZ was the direct contact with the kitchen maker. To learn how this kind of distribution model worked. Being able to get direct and honest feedback directly from the market. They would learn what they could do, to better support not only the distribution model which is their primary customer, but to go a step further in what they could do to better support the kitchen manufacturer.

Two of our newest products within Blum’s “E-SERVICES” are testament to this. Order Management and our Product Configurator, are digital tools to aid in the specification and ordering of Blum products. These digital tools were designed and built with direct help from our Blum New Zealand team, and a few of our NZ customers. We had NZ customers trialling these digital products in a test phase and providing feedback. As a country, we are particularly useful for this, partly from a cultural standpoint, in that we are quite comfortable providing honest feedback. Not just saying what we think they want to hear. And we are very innovative as a people. What we know of as the “#8 wire mentality” Not afraid to try new things, and if it doesn’t’ work; find a solution. So I know our Austrian colleagues have found us particularly helpful here.

Blum has come a long way in the time since I have known of them back in the mid 90’s. Known primarily as a manufacturer of the Blum range of architectural hardware, what has been the underlying approach to the market by Blum since you became Managing Director in 2010?

Globally and locally we are a very customer centric business. We have a very simple strategy where we want to support the industry by providing a high-quality product to the market; which our customer can trust and depend on. We want to support the product and our customer with a reliable distribution platform, where they can rely on us to supply it on time and in full every time. And we want to provide a high quality support network with well trained staff. Here we have improved significantly over the years.

When you look at the kitchen industry, which is where the majority of our business comes from. A kitchen is a complex product, with a massive number of variables. Our simple goal is to make our part of this complex production as trouble free as possible for our customer. From the time of product specification, to well past any warranty obligations. I would say the only major direction I’ve taken, which is different to Sanco; was in our approach to marketing. We’ve worked tirelessly over the years on the exposure of the Blum brand with the end user. While we only have a small marketing team in NZ, they have done an outstanding job in bringing the name – brand and our reputation into the household.

The company has had considerable success in recent years. What do you attribute this to and what have been the biggest challenges for Blum?

On one hand not much has changed, and on the other nearly everything. One thing I’ve learnt over the years is success, or a win, rarely occurs because of one factor or person. From the local side, I’m very proud of the fact we still have nearly all of the original team from the Sanco days. Joseph Eggels has just hit 25 years and Moira Smith is about to. One of our guys in the warehouse is now over 20 years. To me, this is a testament to Blum as a global company who places a very high value on its people. We see our people as our biggest asset, without good people and a highly motivated team, you can’t get far, so this is number one. Locally we have a very good team across the board. From our sales team in the field, through to our customer service and distribution team generally out of sight, in the back room.

Of equal importance is the Blum product itself. Over the years the product and brand have built a formidable reputation for quality, reliability and high functionality. These are key drivers in our success, We also see innovation as a very important aspect, particularly looking ahead; however with innovation comes challenge. One of our biggest challenges would be the increasing complexity of our products. Of course, the GFC and now COVID 19 provide some unique challenges to deal with; but these are the same for nearly all businesses.

If we look back 20 years ago, there was just one drawer type, with one colour, and a handful of hinges, that was it, no choice, easy! Now we stock nearly 100 different hinges in two colours, and sell four ranges of drawers, with seven different colours and four different opening and closing technologies, some using electrical components, and multiple packaging/quantity options. Soon we will have smart technologies integrated into kitchens. Who would have imagined being able to open a drawer with no hands using a voice command via a phone in your pocket 20 years ago?

This provides a range of complex challenges to deal with, not just in our business, but in our customers. Our sales and customer service teams, need to be highly trained, and able to support our customer base right across the full range of our products.

The adoption rates of products such as SERVO-DRIVE and LEGRABOX in New Zealand also tells an important story. When I look at our growth over the last 10 years and you look critically at yourself; and ask what have we done well, or why did we do well? A big part of our success has been our customer. Without them and their product, we have little.

I don’t know how many in our industry realise, but we make some of the finest kitchens in the world! On average; the standard of workmanship and design is extremely high here. Any kiwi kitchen maker who’s been to Eurocucina will tell you how good their kitchens are compared to the big name Euro brands. An easily proven fact; we have some of the very best kitchen designers in the world here. Not just one or two, there are quite a number who have won world design titles in recent years. And I have to say; we derive a great deal of pleasure vicariously, through their success.

I’ve been on many trips to European kitchen fairs, and on more than one occasion I’ve had Australian designers talk to me with envy at the scope and design they see coming out of our industry. There is no doubt in my mind that the innovation and design trends in the modern kitchen, driven by our industry; are one of the main reasons why the kitchen has become such an integral part of the home today. And because of that, we have all benefitted.

A very competitive marketplace is always creating demands. In your role as head of Blum what do you see as the most important things driving the marketplace? There are always a number of factors, fashion, the dollar, resources. It’s very clear to us all that the kitchen has been through a massive transformation in the last 20 years, which has been very good for our industry. It is often the focal point of the house, prioritised with a prime position and generous floor area. The days of a tiny room next to the laundry at the back of the house, are virtually forgotten. This prominence has led to design, fashion and innovation becoming very important. These designers and manufacturers can lead or create fashions or trends in kitchens. And these trends or ideas very quickly find their way into mainstream design, due to the speed and reach of Social Media. This means we now see requests, even orders for new products and technologies which are only available in Europe, and still very early in their life cycle.

We’ve worked very hard over the years with our in house efficiencies. Like many of our customers we’ve invested heavily in automation, which has allowed us to run a very lean operation. This has meant over the years as volumes have increased, we’ve been able to keep our overheads in check. The end result is with a broadening of our range we have become more competitive in the low to medium segments of the market, where Blum was not so competitive in the Sanco years. Looking to the future, I believe we will see increased pressure or presence from the big box manufacturers. These are the current crop of DIY - building supply merchants. And in the future the likes of Ikea. I’m sure they will become increasingly professional in their offering, and the retail dimension they bring to the kitchen market, will bring new competitive challenges to our industry.

There is no hiding from the demands of ever changing technology. Where do you see Blum heading: broadening their product range or remaining ever focused on what you have sold successfully to date?

Only 2 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to speak about future products here. Blum used to keep a tight lid on information reaching markets before the product was available. It But with the increasing prevalence of social media being the carrier of news as well as traditional advertising, we know its an impossible task to corral this information. Better to control it; so we are releasing it much earlier, at a global level out of Austria.

With this in mind, I can say we have a number of very exciting products on the horizon. Some are about to hit the market right now, some are still years away. Most are variations of what we have, so it is pure innovation at work. One is a totally new product, putting us firmly into a new category in the market.

We have the SPACE STEP. This is a step to allow access into higher areas if the kitchen, with built in storage designed to be integrated into the toe space of the kitchen. Available now. We have a product called pull-out shelf lock for MOVENTO which enables you to lock a MOVENTO runner in an open position. Due October 2020. In the not too distant future; we will have a new drawer system coming called MERIVOBOX, which we are very confident will quickly become a favourite in NZ.

And lastly, we will enter the sliding door market with a brand new Pocket door system. It was exhibited at Interzum for the first time in 2017 as a prototype, where it got very good feedback from a couple of very well known icons of our industry who were among the many thousands of visitors who saw it. It was shown again in 2019 and has since gone into production. Right now, a small number of pilot customers within Germany and Italy are using it, which is the final phase of our testing process, before it becomes available for global distribution. To give a little insight into the planning that comes with these new products, we have just completed and opened our new Christchurch facility, which in itself is a new product with its revolutionary new showroom. In 2017 we planned the racking layout for the building. It will hold a new size pallet for the pocket door we won’t see until 2022 at the earliest.

But when we do, two unique features will make it a favourite very quickly!