Appliance specialist Beko and German kitchen manufacturer Nolte have combined forces in order to launch a range of built-in premium Grundig appliances, exclusively for Nolte German kitchen retailers.
Launched this month at kbb Birmingham 2014, the comprehensive appliance offering – made up of 26 products – has been designed to help protect Nolte’s kitchen specialist retailers from heavy online discounting, seen as the bane to most retailers. It is also hoped that it will give them an extra point of difference in a competitive market.
Nolte UK country manager Richard Pedgrift explained: “Most of our customers are pretty fed up with appliance business. In the past, the appliances made up about a third of the value of an order, with kitchen furniture, worktops, fitting and so on making up the other two-thirds. Then, all of a sudden, consumers could buy appliances online for silly prices. That left the dealers no margin, so many of them just lost interest. Why would any of them work for such a small margin? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
He added: “This opportunity to have a well-known brand name that’s not available on the internet, with some really nicely designed products, seemed like a great opportunity for our customers. So we’ll be designing studios like the display shown here for our customers and they will have the option of having the Grundig range as part of that package.”
Beko senior marketing manager Matthew Jones said: “It’s a very exciting partnership for us and we’re very excited about bringing the Grundig product back to the UK. It’s very interesting, because those consumers that remember us from the past, will remember us a consumer electronics and audio brand. But we’re back now and back in the kitchen.
“Having the opportunity to work with Nolte allows us to talk to consumers who want a premium experience, with a German kitchen and a German appliance brand, and gives us an opportunity to launch this fantastic range of built-in appliances to our end users.”
Beko has also launched a range of freestanding appliances that will be available exclusively through Currys.
The announcement comes almost a year to the day that Kitchens-Kitchens posted about the safety alert over 138,000 faulty Beko home appliances that were thought to pose a risk to thousands of families which had been making the headlines this time last year.
At the time Beko were accused of making ‘death trap machines’ linked to 12 deaths and the alert, concerning its fridge freezers, tumble dryers and gas cookers looked set to damage the firm’s reputation so it will be interesting to see if Beko has shaken off the safety concerns and whether Nolte’s brand will be adversely affected should the Beko products suffer further adverse press in the near future, and perhaps as a precautionary measure, why the Grundig name has attributed to these Beko appliances?
