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09 June 2005

‘For us 2006 will be the Year of the Luxury Bathroom Fixtures’

Chris van Tilborg, Technische Unie, Sonepar Nederland

Around five years ago, Technische Unie decided on a marketing strategy aimed at the luxury end of the bathroom fixtures market. Chris van Tilborg, who was recently appointed as Corporate Director Purchasing, has initiated the expansion of the project ‘Bathroom Fixtures 2006’.

“This approach to Luxury Bathroom Fixtures has been necessary in order to achieve a better product mix in the bathroom fixtures range,” he says. “Our approach has been successful: The growth is increasing and the product mix is improving.”

Technische Unie is strengthening its position in the bathroom fixtures market. In the past few years, we’ve worked hard to develop our expertise and techniques so that we can offer the best service to our customers of luxury bathroom fixtures. For Technische Unie, 2006 is the Year of Luxury Bathroom Fixtures. We are promoting our specialism in a variety of ways. Our presence at VSK, the leading trade fair for heating, bathroom fixtures and refrigerating engineering in the Netherlands, was a good start!”

Change in consumer demand
Chris van Tilborg has worked at Technische Unie since 1991, initially as the manager of the sales office. In 1997 he moved from sales to purchasing and he became manager of the product group Bathroom Fixtures. Since 2000 he has worked tirelessly for a successful approach to luxury bathroom fixtures. He led a working group that analyzed the opportunities in the market. “In the past ten years,” he says, “consumer demand has changed considerably. The customer wants luxury. You can see that both in the fitter’s showroom and in new housing construction projects. For us, it was a challenge to respond to this trend.”

Two strategies
For the two differing markets, Technische Unie developed separate strategies.
- Help of the Showroom Support Team made up five specialists who supports and advice contractors in the fields of  trends, products and showroom design.
- Improving the sales process in the showroom.

These strategies are developed in our Showroom book.
Furthermore, we are very busy with the rolling out (introduction) of Bathroom online in the market, a clever tool with which you can create in no time at all a design, a parts list and an offer.”

Developing opportunities
“The luxury bathroom fixtures market is very interesting,” says Chris van Tilborg. “This range appeals to everyone and everyone is happy to talk about it. What is also very interesting is the spectacular growth in new products: 20 to 25% per year! Our clients have a lot of catching up to do. We can give them excellent support with our information support, expertise and tools. This way we are continually developing our opportunities in this specialist field!”


 
 
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