Louise Stalker, channel manager, kitchen studios, AEG
Q: How’s business compared with last year?
A: This past year has been a huge success for Electrolux Group and our AEG brand for a number of reasons. Our independent kitchen studio retailers are an integral part of our business, and throughout 2023, they remained strong in a time of economic uncertainty and other industry-specific challenges, such as lead generation.
It remains that there’s an overwhelminglypositive outlook among our retailers and we are continuing our work with such partners to make sure business continues with the ongoing success that we saw in 2023.
We are flexible in our approach and continue to carefully monitor our product pricing and promotions, to make sure that all our independent kitchen studio retailers are supported and can continue to adapt under any circumstances. By continuing to drive brand awareness, we have enjoyed the many opportunities to engage such retailers and hope to build on this in 2024.
Q: How do you view the health of the UK KBB market? In what ways could the industry improve it?
A: We are constantly designing new, innovative technologies that are not only our most sustainable and resource-efficient but that suit both industry and retailers’ needs. The kitchen, bedroom and bathroom market has experienced some turbulence over the past three years but we believe by working collaboratively with our retailers, it will ensure fresh ideas – that have proved invaluable to the success of 2023 – that will lead to exciting plans in 2024.
Q: What are the main challenges facing your sector and how are you tackling them?
A: In a time of political and economic uncertainty in the industry, the two main challenges our retailers will face in 2024 are the changes in consumer purchasing due to the economic environment and lead generation. But with change comes opportunity, and we are supporting our network of retailers throughout the year by ensuring our partners are prioritised from a supply perspective and that the end consumer’s needs are met.
We recently implemented a price decrease across all our categories and launched a new online brochure tool that we are thrilled to present at the kbb show this year.
Supply has also improved compared with previous years and we’re looking forward to seeing this grow throughout 2024 and beyond.