The British Institute of Kitchen, Bedroom and Bathroom Installation (BiKBBI) has made two new appointments to its advisory board, and said three more would be announced within weeks.
Jon Thelwell, a former showroom director at Jewson and former head of marketing at Moores Furniture Group, has joined BiKBBI’s executive team with a responsibility to develop the organisation’s commercial strategy.
Chartered accountant and finance director Karen Stanley has also joined the advisory board.
BiKBBI CEO Damian Walters said: “In less than a week, we’ve managed to secure the support of two highly experienced professionals who will help steer our organisation through this period of exciting and significant growth”.
The appointments come as the institute said it is about to go live with its new digital Protected service, which it unveiled at its annual event at the Houses of Parliament in January.
Walters said the product will be trialled by two national and four regional KBB retailers before being rolled out to the rest of the market.
When details of the Protected platform were first announced, Walters said it could completely change the way retailers manage installations for the better, offering to remove the retailer from the commercial relationship between their customers and their installers.
Walters said BiKBBI had already received expressions of interest from 240 independent retailers since launching the initiative.
On the new appointments, Walters added: “We are working with some of the industry’s biggest and most respected brands, a growing number of great independent retailers and thousands of installation specialists across the UK.
“Our organisation is growing rapidly, both in terms of membership and profile. We’ve already welcomed over 500 new installation businesses so far this year, we’re about to announce further developments with our Retail Installation Standards Partnership initiative, too.”
- Look out for more information about BiKBBI’s new digital installation service in the next issue of kbbreview