The bathroom industry is returning to the contract and architect market following its collapse at the height of the economic downturn.

Most of the major manufacturers at ISH all cited the project market as a key target for the immediate future of their business, even those that were not in that market in a major way before the recession.

Alberto Magrans, senior managing director at Laufen (pictured)s, said: "It's not a secret that we have a lot to do in Laufen in the project market, we are strong in the traditional channels but the project business is a key development for us. We're making a very big effort internally; we've taken one of our key guys from the UK, Russell Barnes, to be the head of international projects. He's based in the UK but we are developing an international network of people to connect all the local companies into the same objectives. We, as a big group, have a presence in many countries and we're improving connections all the time because it's increasingly a global market"

Grohe is one company that already has this kind of international set up and Michael Rausterkus, president Europe for Grohe, said it is has become more significant than the retail side of the business.

"We focus on the project business much more," he said. "I think we were the first company to establish a worldwide project organisation. In the past we were country-by-country focused, so if you had a project in Azerbaijan with a German architect and an investor from London, how would you manage the process? Now it's very simple, our project organisation can manage this process and help the customers to be really successful with full support. So we have people all over the world, including a base in London."