Recognised as a new growth area for the KBB market, outdoor kitchens were out in force show at the kbb Birmingham show from Königstone, Elfin Kitchens and Burnout.Kitchen.
UK worktop specialist Königstone was showing its new KönigOutdoor range of modular outdoor kitchens(pictured top), right next to its stand British company Elfin Kitchens had its brand new portable and outdoor kitchens, and elsewhere at kbb, German company Burnout.Kitchen was showing its outdoor kitchens for the first time.
In his top picks from the kbb show, RFK chief executive Trevor Scott identified outdoor kitchens as “a growth area that kitchen specialists should not ignore”. And our New Kitchen Retailer of the Year award winner, Ligneous Kitchens in Walton-on-Thames, said during our interview with them: “Home offices is an area where we feel there is a big market and outdoor living, too. That is very much an area we want to get involved in and a direction that we would like the business to take.”
British kitchen worktop specialist Königstone was showing its KönigOutdoor range of outdoor kitchens. Marketing manager Joanne Bull confirmed that “the idea of outdoor living is gaining momentum, in part due to our confined time at home [during Covid], but the trend was soaring beforehand”.
The KönigOutdoor is said to combine stylish sintered stone-clad cabinetry with materials of proven durability. The range is modular and can be configured to suit the customer’s needs. Königstone teamed up with Neolith to provide eight colour options and is also offering a selection of appliances to complete the package.
Bull added: “Our retailers can add an additional revenue stream that doesn’t compete with anything else they offer – so they can open up their order books to existing customers as well as new ones. It also doesn’t take up their fitter’s time as KönigOutdoor deals with the installation of the units so, provided there is a level and flat surface, installation is taken care of.”
Right next door to Königstone was another British manufacturer that is now moving into outdoor kitchens – Elfin Kitchens. This family-owned company started 16 years ago producing pre-built modular kitchens for student accommodation. It now sells around 3,000 a year and joint MD Neill Andrew told kbbreview it has produced more than 10,000 kitchens since it started. But the two offerings from Elfin at the kbb show that will interest kitchen studios are its portable kitchen and outdoor kitchen.
Building on its student accommodation experience, all kitchens are made entirely of steel and are 100% recyclable. The portable kitchen allows retailers to provide customers who have had their old kitchen removed and are still waiting for appliances for their new kitchen with a simple, portable, self-contained wheel-in, wheel-out kitchen that will allow them to cook and prepare food.
As Andrew explained: “The common question that we are hearing customers put to installers, ‘now you’ve ripped the kitchen out, what are we going to cook on?’ The temporary kitchen can do that. It is portable so you could wheel it in and out. You connect it up to the water supply and waste, and all the appliances work off a 13amp plug. No electrician required. This is a brand new product and we are very excited about it because it is meeting a need, and that’s what we like doing.”
And the next logical development for Elfin was it modular, portable outdoor kitchen. The company initially approached a number of garden centres who took on the product as a “barbecue buddy” for customers to use alongside their barbecues, adding the ability to prepare food, cool drinks and store food.
The outdoor kitchen is built on a stainless steel chassis, it is portable and installation is simple as it only needs to be connected to an outside tap or hose and power supply, through its waterproof commando connector. It comes in two widths, 1,200mm and 1,500mm.
Andrew is convinced outdoor kitchens are a good area for retailers to move into. He told kbbreview: “I think the public has a lot more money than they used to and are enjoying their gardens and home life a lot more than they did. They are quite happy to spend a lot of money on an outdoor barbecue and so to spend a little more to have an outdoor kitchen to complement that is an opportunity for Elfin.”
Also at kbb Birmingham was German outdoor kitchen brand Burnout.Kitchen, which launched into the UK in February.
Joachimmeyer added: “The outdoor kitchen can be planned by using our simple online configurator. This makes it easy for the dealer to create a plan that includes prices for the customer. And customers can play with the configurator to create their own outdoor kitchen in the comfort of their own home.”
Burnout.Kitchen was founded in 2017 by Daniel Joachimmeyer and Thomas Pabst in Bissendorf, Germany. Speaking about the launch, Joachimmeyer said: “We’ve seen the outdoor kitchen market developing well in many countries. Having started receiving many enquiries from UK, the next step was obvious. We want to reach new dealers and convince them that we can offer a very exciting product. Interested retailers will have the opportunity to see the Burnout.Kitchen in real life and be able to touch it and convince themselves of the quality.”
Burnout.Kitchen offers a modular outdoor kitchen that consumers can configure to suit their needs. The kitchen can be portable, using castors, or have fixed legs.