Samsung’s relaunch of its Kitchen Circle partners scheme at the KBB show in Birmingham was a “massive success” with a “strong take-up” from new members.
So said Dan Harvie, Samsung vice-president of home appliances UK and Ireland, when kbbreview spoke to him at the launch in London of the new limited-edition Bespoke Jubilee fridge-freezer. He said of the Kitchen Circle relaunch at KBB: “We had a very healthy take-up from new studios that hadn’t yet sold and displayed Samsung products. We used KBB as the platform to relaunch and reinvigorate that partnership. KBB was a massive success for us as a business. We will be using Kitchen Circle this year and adding a number of supporting benefits to continue to strengthen our engagement and partnership with and support for kitchen studios and specialists.
“There will be a number of new Kitchen Circle initiatives when it comes to commercial support and promotional activity, with training support both in-store an in roadshows. Promotional support that partners will be able to take advantage of will include advantageous rates for display products, because securing additional products displays is a key part of our expansion strategy.
“There will also be added benefits in terms of customer services and aftersales and customer care. Kitchen Circle partners will get dedicated support and dedicated phone lines, so that we can be proactive in reaching out to partners and broaden our distribution through a call centre.”
Harvie also confirmed that Samsung is increasing its market share in major domestic appliances. He told kbbreview: “We are growing as an overall business and have had a very good two or three years in terms of our revenue and market share performance. We are on track for our built-in business this year to be twice as large as it was pre-pandemic. We see the trend for people to be investing in products for their homes continuing and we are very well placed to continue to do very well.”
Commenting on how Samsung has been tackling the global supply chain issues that have disrupted MDA supplies for all KBB retailers, Harvie said: “There have been a number of macro supply chain challenges that every manufacturer has had to deal with and Samsung is no different in that respect. There are, of course, benefits for us when it comes to our global scale, leveraging component sourcing and freight availability, which we have been able to take advantage of.
“We are also making a number or investments in the UK in terms of warehousing and space expansion as well as our logistics infrastructure to continually improve our ability to service our channel partners. We are also increasing the number of products we source from our European facility, with shorter lead times to make sure that supply chain is as flexible as possible to offer the best service to our trade partners that we can.”
• As a celebration of the Platinum Jubilee, the Jubilee Bespoke fridge-freezers are a limited-edition product available in three colours – Clean Black, Glam Lavender and Glam Peach and have special-edition panels displaying the Union Jack. This is a limited-edition product and only 70 will be sold on a first come, first served basis.