kbbreview-industry-awards-2011-02-showroom

What Parkes Interiors says:

“Our displays have all been dressed with appropriate lifestyle props and are fully stocked with food supplies to show the extensive storage solutions we provide. The appliances are all live and it is not uncommon to have a ‘waffleberry pie’ baking in the oven, we even offer customers a light bite on arrival if they’ve travelled a long way.”

Parkes Interiors’ 1,400sq ft showroom has six kitchen displays, including one kitchen dining room and one kitchen living dining set designed to illustrate the typical Parkes project. The company created more showroom space at the end of 2010 by moving the main office upstairs and brought more natural light in to the rear of showroom by installing skylights and moving the staircase. Each showroom display has a value assigned to it at the end of each year to determine its sales viability and the window displays are crucial to its succes as the showroom looks out onto a busy road. Parkes chooses strong colours and unusual features to create visual awareness and sales opportunities.

Imbue was founded in 2001, originally trading as Kitchens@CMK Ltd. In 2004 it moved into its current premises and in 2009 refurbished the showroom, changed its product portfolio and rebranded to Imbue. The company’s turnover increased by almost half a million pounds in 2009, exceeding an annual turnover of £1.4m The team describe the showroom as its ‘jewel in the crown’. Divided into three sections it features classic, traditional and contemporary displays, one of which is a full Dynamic Space demonstration area. In the centre of the showroom is a full size display featuring the Kings Manor kitchen from the company’s bespoke Couture Collection. There is also a kid’s play area, and a ‘secret door’ to another display area.

Also up for the Master Retailer award, Kitchen Architecture has six displays in its converted mini-market showroom. This allows it to demonstrate the versatility of the bulthaup product and the flexibility of its house style. Thanks to the wide shop front all three ground floor displays are highly visible. The ground floor is designed to be warm, inviting and friendly, allowing clients to visualise the displays in their own homes. Pendant and recessed lighting is used and the herring-bone oak floor adds a period feel. The open office area is to the rear and has visual contact with the entire ground floor area. The basement provides a more architectural ‘white-box’ feel with polished concrete flooring. The underlying message is that bulthaup is as comfortable in period property as it is in modern surroundings.

Pure Design is a retail showroom under the new ownership of brother and sister team Andrew and Anna Ward. The showroom is set out over 22,000sq ft with 40 different room sets. The ground floor is dedicated to kitchens with 16 working displays, a wide range of SieMatic Kitchens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and bespoke kitchens from Davonport. It works closely with appliance brands such as Gaggenau and Wolf for cooking demonstrations and there are also audio visual systems running throughout the showroom. The journey around the store is well planned as the 16 kitchen displays take up the ground floor walking around in a circular direction from where the sales team can then take clients back through the showroom and interact with them.