To the Swiss, timing is everything. They're famous for it; it's part of their culture. Think of the Swiss and you think of clocks and watches. You think of precision. They even get their trains to run on time. Imagine that.

Timing in business is another thing altogether of course. Swiss kitchen appliance specialist V-ZUG has been happily turning out top-end products for its home market for over 90 years now. But is the timing right to launch a major roll out of its products in the UK? Certainly it's a bold and ambitious move to grow the brand. In fact it's also launching for the first time in France and Spain. But the timing could probably have been better.

Obviously a difficult market isn't something V-ZUG has much control over. The idea has been in the planning for some time, and no doubt the hope was to ride on the back of continued prosperity across European markets. But despite the current downturn, V-ZUG remains undeterred. It's forging ahead with its plans, aided by distribution vehicle LSY, whose commercial director Matt Jinks (pictured) remains confident the launch can succeed. Kbbreview caught up with him at V-ZUG's HQ near Zurich, together with V-ZUG's export manager Roman Graedel.

Q What's the strategy for the UK?

Matt Jinks: There's only one place to go, which is the top end. If you look at the current economic situation in the UK you think that's a more difficult thing to do. Money is tighter, the consumer is feeling the squeeze, so trying to sell a premium brand is more difficult. But from our experience, the premium end is not being affected as badly. Look at the house builder market and it's the run of the mill companies like Persimmon and Westbury who are cutting back on their development, but Millgate Homes and Octagon at the top end continue to flourish.
That's not to say things might slow down because there tends to be a trickle down effect. But at the moment we think we're in a lucky position. If we were coming to market with a mid-priced product where there's a lot more competition and prices are being hacked down on the internet we wouldn't feel half as confident.
Roman Graedel: You have to look at the philosophy of the company. We are very pragmatic with very long-term thinking and we don't make fast decisions and then regret them. LSY are the right distribution partner and we see good opportunities in the UK market. The Swiss market is not that big, and we're the market leader so we have to grow outside of Switzerland. We don't see this as a risk because we're used to working in a small market; we have high demand in a small market, which is comparable with small demand in the UK market.

Q Who are you targeting?

MJ: On the retail side, we're just getting the ball rolling. You have to be careful not to panic and go to stores with 50 other brands. Some of the smaller outfits we're talking to want to be V-ZUG branches but we're not arrogant enough to expect people to do that at this time. It will evolve.
We already sell GE American refrigeration which is a premium brand. And with our experience of the market and years of identifying the right customers we think we know the kind of people we need to be speaking to. We have relationships directly or through distributors that we've now set up for V-ZUG.
From a contract point of view, smaller developers, architects and designers are the area we're going to focus on. We've invested in a database system to track contracts coming through so we can get in at grass roots level.

Q How many retailers are you looking for?

MJ: In 12 months we want to have 50-60 retailers nationwide. Within three years we'd like to grow that to around 200. We're not going to go mass market because we'd kill it before we started. There are currently about 15 retailers on board and we're making good headway considering the current climate. Displays are selling well. We're under no illusions that this is going to take time. When times are tough people won't commit time to changing their showroom, instead they want to be out fitting kitchens.
RG: It's like a Chinese tree. For the first five years it grows very slowly and then after that you get nice leaves and big roots...

Q How is it being distributed?

MJ: We've set up four distributors - Waterline, Bradshaw, DR Cooker Hoods and Bodel in Ireland. We've done training with them, and put an advertising campaign together.

Q How many products are you launching?

RG: 18 in two different colours - black glass and stainless steel. For dealers it's a great advantage. At the moment they have a product catalogue of maybe 150 pages. It's confusing for them and confusing  for their customers. They can't be expected to explain every product.
MJ: From a selfish point of view we can keep everything in stock and not get caught out.

Q How easy will it be to attract retailers?

MJ: It's going to be a challenge. Established brands have got a great deal of loyalty, but we're looking long term. All brands started with their first display, you have to start somewhere.

Q What kind of incentives are you offering?

MJ: We've got a very aggressive display deal to get customers to take our products for display. It won't be free, but a turnover based incentive so if they sell a certain amount they'll get the products free. We need to do that, we accept that nobody will be beating down our door.
In the first instance we don't have millions to spend on advertising. We will have a small but concise advertising campaign, but the most important thing is getting the product on display in the showrooms and getting the right retailers to do training evenings. That's going to be our success, it has to be.

Q What are likely to be the most popular products?

MJ: Things like gourmet steam cooking. The precision of the cooking, and also having a full-size steam oven will be very good for the UK market. I also think the dishwasher is stunning. Both products encapsulate the image of Swiss technology.
RG: We are a small company with special products. We don't have any competition in terms of quality and reliability. 

Q What would the likes of Miele and Gaggenau say about that?

RG: They're competitors but they're very big and we are small. Small companies always have the advantage of being flexible. We can make special solutions for special markets. Companies like Gaggenau are never as flexible.
MJ: Miele, Gaggenau and Siemens are in Switzerland too, but who's number one? V-ZUG is with a turnover of EURO255m (£198m), which is more than Gaggenau do globally. And that's in one market of only 7.5 million people.

Q What's been their reaction to you?

MJ: We had the stand opposite Miele in Paris and we had just about everyone from there coming over and taking a damn good look at us, and that's great. I love the idea of taking on a massive company and making them worry about us. I think there's a great deal of concern among brands like Miele.

Q Will you have a significant internet presence?

MJ: No, we have selected partners - Appliance City and RDO - who we feel can represent the brand well on the internet because it's an important forum for research and purchasing, but it's not our number one focus for the brand. V-ZUG will have a presence on the internet but it won't be widely available.