Interview: Rebecca Nottingham // Words: George Dean

Until five or six years ago, German supplier Blanco was, like most other sink and tap specialists, just focused on selling sinks and taps. However, to differentiate its offering in a competitive corner of the market, it pioneered a concept beyond those products alone. Blanco now envisions the whole sink area as a tailored “kitchen water place” – a concept it says also provides added value for retailers.

“Sinks and taps are seen as a little product at the end of a kitchen plan,” explains Blanco CEO, Frank Gfrörer. “Consumers spend roughly 60% of their kitchen time around the water place, but compared to the overall cost of a kitchen, taps and sinks only make up about 5%.”

Under Gfrörer, Blanco is on a mission to raise the profile of the “kitchen water place”, emphasising its crucial role in the lives of homeowners.

He explains: “You drink, you prep, you clean, and you organise there. We think the consumer should be more aware of what they are doing so they see the benefits of a better product solution. That’s what we call the Blanco Unit.”

Gfrörer also believes that its product offering holds benefits for retailers selling the concept too. “It’s a whole system for drinking, prepping and cleaning, whatever your consumer wants,” he explains, “and so it’s an essential part of the kitchen. We see a chance to increase the value for all – Blanco, retailers and homeowners – in the space.”

Pivotal product

A major element of Blanco’s water place philosophy is purposefully designing a kitchen around this space, instead of simply viewing the products as afterthoughts. 

“It’s not only about adding new products, but also not just referring to it as a sink, a tap, a drinks system,” he explains. “We need to offer a holistic system that includes planning tools, data and marketing.”

It’s certainly an impressive and well-conceived strategy, and one that ties into the brand’s heritage in the market while also looking ahead to the future of the industry.

At the time of the company’s inception in 1925, sinks and taps were far from new innovations, but Gfrörer says that Blanco founder, Heinrich Blanc, “made it better and he delivered in full”. In the almost-century since then, Blanco has grown to become a globally recognised kitchen brand, and Gfrörer believes it’s that same heritage that makes it well-poised to lead the way with a new kitchen concept.

After joining the company in 2017, he stepped into the role of CEO in 2018, just before the entire industry had to face the perils brought by Covid.

“Each generation of CEOs has their disaster and their crisis. Mine was Covid,” he says. “But actually, Covid was just a half year for the kitchen industry. Then it was the complete opposite of a crisis. As a business, you don’t get to celebrate 100-years if you don’t have the ability to adapt.”

Such as with how Covid changed the face of the kitchen industry forever, Gfrörer believes in the merits of Blanco’s water place so much that he considers it another pivotal moment in the industry’s story. He explains it’s, “one of those tipping points in history where you say, ‘okay, we are going in that direction’, because the market requires exactly this to keep you moving”.

To help facilitate the rollout of the water place ideology and products, Gfrörer says Blanco has been forced to work even closer with retailers than it ever has in its company lifetime – and that’s not a bad thing. 

“I suppose from a display perspective it’s got to be seen almost to be believed,” he ponders. “Ultimately, it’s about having a different solution for everyone. Blanco and retailers share a common target, and that’s the consumer, and that partnership is a big part of our philosophy.”

According to Gfrörer the UK market plays a very important role in the international set-up of Blanco with continuous investments, which is more good news for retailers.