Kitchen & Bath Business - October 2019 - 26

BETTER BUSINESS

Start 'Em Up

MASS PRODUCTION TO
DESIGNING FOR INDIVIDUALS

New kitchen brands are engaging designers

The new luxury is all about experiences, according
to Elkin, who said it's not about what you own,
it's about how you experience what you own. He
and his team are designing and building appliances for people who really enjoy cooking and
entertaining.
"Everything in the kitchen might not be
a luxury item by category, but people will pick
things they love, making their kitchen personal,"
he added.
People want their kitchens to have personality and individuality, and according to Hays,
"The kitchen is the ultimate place for self-expression now."

IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH for businesses to be better or faster at doing
things, they need to be doing things differently than the way they've always
been done to win in this global marketplace. I've been talking to innovative
startups in the kitchen and bath industry: Signature Kitchen Suite (SKS), a
division of LG that is offering a new line of luxury appliances, and Cabbonet,
a London-based company offering designers, architects and showrooms
modern European-style furniture/kitchen designs and materials manufactured in Italy.
I sat down with Zach Elkin, general manager of SKS and LG Builder, to
talk about starting up a new luxury appliance brand and the challenges he
faces. We talked at length about innovations and technology - and, of course,
appliances.The biggest challenge for Elkin's team is standing up and scaling
a business while putting processes and procedures in place at the same time.
I also chatted with Andrew Hays, CEO of Cabbonet, and Neil Bailey,
president of Cabbonet Inc. - the company's U.S. division - about starting
up a new brand and about their company's innovations. Hays explained that
the quantity of work and vision involved in creating this brand has been allenveloping for a long time. European product designs and materials will be
disruptive in the kitchen and bath industry, according to Bailey.

INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY & PEOPLE

A CLOSER LOOK AT
TWO INDUSTRY STARTUPS

Hays describes Cabbonet's offering as, "Relatively simple and beautifully
constructed furniture for the kitchen and every other room in the house.
It's simple to order and easy to fit with a gorgeous selection of materials
and finishes."
Cabbonet's mission is to bring to market artisan-style craftsmanship,
beautiful timbers and fantastically engineered and high-quality products at
an affordable and accessible level.
"We design our products and then find machines to build our beautiful
designs," said Hays. "We have a design-born vision."
Elkin shares Signature Kitchen Suite's product offering to the kitchen
industry at the brand new 22,500-sq. -ft. Experience and Design Center
(EDC) located in Napa, Calif.
"The EDC is the stage where we are introducing SKS to thought leaders
within the design community and throughout the building community, as
well as the best of the best in distributor networks,"he said. "The EDC allows
us to bring our brands to life and lets designers, builders and trade partners
see firsthand the precision, performance and detail we put into the products."
Elkin uses the word "prosumer" to describe a consumer who has a design
professional attached to them who understands the consumer and what they
are looking to do in that kitchen. No two applications are ever the same he
says, so the expertise of a kitchen designer is priceless.
It's really great to see two large international kitchen industry manufacturers focus on designers as their key to success. Hays has a creative vision that
encourages the design community to engage with Cabbonet. He says most
European brands require that a designer has a showroom to be allowed to
sell their products. He doesn't want like-minded designers or architects restricted by bricks and mortar, so Cabbonet will offer its product to designers,
architects and showrooms that fit the company's distribution plans.

By SCOTT KOEHLER,
owner of Dream Kitchen
Builders, a design-build
firm in North Carolina

Hays and Elkin both talked a lot about the importance of getting the right people on their teams.
Hays describes the task as getting the right group
to help create something they love.
"We are passionate people who are knowledgeable and committed," said Elkin, who describes
SKS as a collaborative culture and sees the company as helping folks design and build their forever kitchen.
Signature Kitchen Suite's innovative processes
have already produced industry firsts, including
built-in sous vide cooking and integrated wine
columns designed to preserve wine by protecting it
against vibration, light and variations in temperature and humidity. When we discussed technology, Elkin said that the tipping point is coming
for this and sees it helping with time management
and efficiency.
"Technology in the kitchen is all about making
the home chef better and making things easier
from a repeatability standpoint," he added. "It's
about saving time by managing better and becoming a more proficient and better cook and
entertainer. It comes down to having more time
to do the things you want to do and spending less
time on repetitive tasks."
Innovation means doing things differently instead of just doing things better or faster. I was
impressed with Cabbonet's mission to bring highstyle European designs and materials from Italy
directly to kitchen designers in the U.S.; I think it's
innovative and brilliant. Signature Kitchen Suite's
focus on customer experiences and technology
leads its drive for innovation. Cabbonet and SKS
are definitely two kitchen industry innovators to
watch in 2020.

/ OCTOBER 2019 / KBBONLINE.COM / The official publication of NKBA (NKBA.org) and KBIS (KBIS.com)

http://www.KBBONLINE.COM http://www.NKBA.org http://www.KBIS.com

Kitchen & Bath Business - October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Kitchen & Bath Business - October 2019