The kbbreview Interview: Sharon Wallis | Poggenpohl

Iconic German kitchen brand Poggenpohl has undoubtedly been through the mill in recent years, but the brand’s story in the UK has been far more stable, thanks to the steady guiding hand of MD Sharon Wallis.

by Rebecca Nottingham14 November, 2024

As a brand that turned 132 years old this year, you’d be hard pushed to find anyone in the sector who hasn’t heard of the German kitchen brand Poggenpohl.

Established in 1892 by Friedemir Poggenpohl who set out to ‘improve the kitchen’, Poggenpohl is one of the oldest kitchen brands in the world. It has even earned itself a reputation among many as the pioneer of the modern fitted kitchen, thanks to its early innovations such as the Reform Kitchen in 1928, and the launch of the first unit kitchen in 1950.

In later years, high-profile collaborations with Porsche Design Studio on its P’7340 and P’7350 series and its work with Electrolux Grand Cuisine on the development of the Fourth wall, have bolstered its reputation for innovative craftsmanship.

Having been operating for 132 years it’s perhaps not surprising that, as well as success, Poggenpohl has had its fair share of ups and downs. Perhaps the most notable period being four years ago when it filed for insolvency in Germany in 2020 only for the brand to be saved out of administration by Chinese firm, Jomoo.

While it obviously felt the effects of the uncertainty around the brand’s insolvency, the story of the brand in the UK, according to MD Sharon Wallis, has been less turbulent. In fact, the brand even celebrated its 50th year of trading in the UK this year.

“Poggenpohl UK was never in administration; it was just the German business that filed for insolvency. In the UK, we remained a very successful, profitable business,” she explains. “Don’t get me wrong, that period between it being announced at the end of April 2020 and the Jomoo deal going through was very uncertain.

“We had the worry of what was happening with our parent company in Germany to contend with, on top of the pandemic.” 

Earlier this month Wallis, who has been at the helm of Poggenpohl UK since her promotion to MD in 2020, was named the most influential female managing director in the kitchen design sector, by Acquisition International Magazine 

By her own admission, Wallis tends to lead more from behind the scenes, preferring to let her colleagues “shine and take the limelight”. 

She may not favour being centre of attention, but that doesn’t stop Wallis showing off her eloquent, firm, and approachable self. Above all, she clearly understands the brand, and its people, inside out so it’s no wonder that, with her in control, Poggenpohl’s story in the UK has been one of stable success.

Sharon Wallis

You became MD of Poggenpohl UK in 2020 but, your association with the brand goes back even further, tell us how you wound up where you are today?

It started back in 2003 when, like many people I kind of fell into the KBB industry. I originally trained as an accountant and Poggenpohl was a client in the practice I worked. Over the next few years the business grew, and I became the full-time manager of the account.

I got to know the brand inside out and in 2006, I joined the business as financial controller, with a promotion in 2008 to financial director. In this role, I became heavily involved in the operational side of the business, and from there my career here snowballed. I was lucky to have some great mentors in the business who I still consider friends.

If you like the people you work with, you become emotionally involved and it becomes more than just a job. I love the brand; I love the product, but I do also think that it’s the team that plays a big part in setting us apart from others. 

Would you say then that people play a big role in defining your management style?

I don’t lead the business alone. I have a very strong management team and we all have very different skills. I’d define my management style as a balanced approach. I can be firm, but I believe I’m fair.

Sometimes, I have to make difficult decisions, but I try to deliver those in the right way. We have a very low turnover of staff, and we’ve all become friends as well as colleagues. 

What does it mean to be the custodian of such an iconic kitchen brand in the UK?

Well, it’s a big responsibility. I’m very proud to say that I am that person at this point in time. And I hope to do it justice. The brand is 132 years old, and we’re celebrating 50 years in the UK this year, so we have a lot of history. But I firmly believe that we’ve got a fantastic future ahead as well.

We’ve had a fabulous year with innovative new design launches, like Diamond and Wing. We’re following the same direction we’ve always taken but going even further to really elevate ourselves within the industry and I hope that that continues.

Poggenpohl went through a particularly challenging period in 2020, around the same time that you took over as MD of the brand here in the UK. That must have been a steep learning curve…

It was a really tricky period to take over a business. One of my first jobs as MD was to close all of the studios due to Covid and put 90% of our staff on furlough. I’d say that’s when my financial background played an important role as I had to manage us through that difficult and uncertain period.

Not only did we have the pandemic to contend with, shortly after lockdown the announcement was made that the German business was being put into liquidation. It was a challenging time, but it helped that I’d had a great handover from my predecessor, Simon Richmond, and my focus was just to be as transparent as possible.

I can’t stress enough that we have a great team behind the brand, everybody just did what they had to do and, thankfully the story ended well, and Poggenpohl Group was acquired by Jomoo. The brand has a new CEO too, Lars Erikson. His industry experience will ensure a cohesive approach to the company’s international presence. 

How do you feel that Jomoo’s ownership has shaped the trajectory of Poggenpohl and how you can develop it in the UK?

It’s allowed us more freedom to push the business forward how we would like to. They’re very supportive. The first investment that they signed off as a Group was relocating our Poggenpohl Chelsea studio to a much bigger property on Fulham Road. They’d just bought the business and less than three-months later I was knocking on the door asking if I could have a significant investment signed off.

But they could see what we were trying to achieve with the move, and they got behind us. That showroom is at this moment in time, our best studio in the UK so it paid off, but I appreciate it would have been a big decision to make at that time.

How’s the brand faring right now? 

In the UK we’re active in the contract market, we operate five of our own studios and we also have a network of 13 independent dealers. We’ve been very focused on the service side of the business and making sure that we can meet the needs of a varied client base.

We’ve seen our average order values increase as a result. Our independent retail partners are a really, really important part of our business. Everything we do as a brand comes back to them. We’ve signed a number of new dealers this year who are already great partners and it’s a channel that we’re also looking to grow further.

Overall, I’d say our studios are probably the busiest that they’ve been for a long time, but there are many delays on sites so a lot of the projects that we’re currently dealing with are already into next year, late next year. 

What’s your take on the kitchen market in general at the moment? 

I don’t think it’s any surprise this year has been very, very challenging. We’ve seen some big casualties already and I do think there will be more, unfortunately.

There’s a lot of uncertainty around the globe, and, in the UK, we need the budget to happen sooner rather than later, but developers, investors, consumers, can’t not do anything forever. We’ve started to see a movement in the market so it’s coming. Things will start to improve, but slowly.

What about your short-term/long-term aims and objectives for the brand?

Long-term, I want to raise awareness of the brand across all our channels. We’re taking steps to achieve that, but it’s not an overnight project. I want Poggenpohl to be a brand that everybody aspires to, not just because of the quality and design of the product, but because of our service as well.

I’m a numbers person so obviously I want to grow the business, but they go hand in hand. We’ve seen some fantastic launches in Germany recently, such as Wing and Diamond, and I want to get those products into studios here so that we can keep the brand front of mind for everyone.

Making sure that we continue to innovate, push the boundaries, and listen to our customers, they’re all part of my core focus points for this business.

Although we’re seeing changes, the industry is still predominantly run by men. Do you think having a female in the role of MD, for such a well-known brand, will help encourage more women into the industry? 

One of the reasons there’s still a difference in ratios is that this industry tends to hold onto people, so you don’t often see many changes at top level.

I certainly think people need role models so they can see that anything is achievable. Poggenpohl itself is a very inclusive business and I think it’s important to support progression and give a platform for people to develop. We’re lucky to have a lot of very talented women working for us but, we’re also lucky to have a lot of talented men across the business.

I try to be a positive role model for everyone. For me, it’s about keeping opportunities open for the right people at the right time. I think that’s very important.