April showers, cabinets, appliances

Home Channel News, May 21, 2001 by John Caulfield

40,000 attendees crowd 3,800 booths at show

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Visitors attending the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show & Conference here last month could be excused if they thought that aliens had invaded the convention.

Metallic objects that looked like flying saucers seemed to have landed in many exhibitors' booths. The tipoff, though, was when water shot out from these disks, revealing them to be showerheads whose surface diameters at times approximated the size of small frying pans.

More suppliers than ever arc promoting larger heads as part of shower "systems" with built-in body jets as alternatives to whirlpool baths for time-pressed homeowners too impatient to wait for a whirlpool bath to fill.

The showerhead assortments were among the many attractions of this year's show, which celebrated its 20th anniversary. "Smart" appliances and multi- functional kitchen cabinets also found their ways into more booths, as suppliers expanded their lines to tap into a remodeling sector that, at least according to this show's attendees, has shown no signs of following the general economy's downward path.

"The first quarter was the best we've ever had in the products I'm responsible for, and I'm crossing my fingers for the rest of the year," said Paul Royal, a certified kitchen designer with 10 yard Spenard Builders Supply in Alaska. Royal said he was at the show looking specifically for new vanity suppliers. "Business has been great, and we're really having a good time on the pro side," added An Ziegler, vp-sales and marketing for Ondine, the bath products supplier whose booth was anchored by a commercial-grade $8,000 shower system that includes a huge downpour showerhead with a built-in rotating color wheel. Ziegler echoed other vendors in his observation that leading dealers' inventory reductions had led to a "slowdown" in the retail sector. "Retail is 50 percent of our sales, but so far the pro side has made up for that," he said

Wanda Jankowski, editor of trade monthly Kitchen and Bath Business, estimated that the number of kitchen and bath projects that would be completed in 2001 would increase by only 1 percent, based on KBB's annual survey of 20,000 homeowners. Yet the amount spent on those projects -- the vast majority of which being remodeling jobs -- is expected to increase by double-digit percentages this year to $19 billion for kitchens and $8 billion for baths.

On a path for growth

This show is primarily for kitchen and bath designers and their suppliers, and products being exhibited are aimed at affluent homeowners or commercial accounts However, the event drew attendees from several major home improvement dealers, including giants such as Home Depot, Lowe's and Lanoga, as Nell as independents such as Rhode Island-based Arnold Lumber. The National Kitchen and Bath Association, which sponsors the event, estimated that 40,000 people attended the convention where 625 suppliers took 3,800 booths within one million square feet of the Orlando Convention Center.

"I think this is an important show in the industry, and there's wonderful education [programs] here," said Jim Inglis, CEO of four-unit home decor retailer Dekor. When he was executive vp with Home Depot, Inglis served on NKBA's board for six years.

The trade group used the event to kick off a new education program for its 8,100 members called NKBA University, which John Spitz, NKBA's director of professional programs, called a "major udertaking" that reflects the group's mission to be an association for all segments of this industry. The university encompasses several formats through which NKBA provides education. The group offers 15 one- to three-day certificate courses through 125 schools whose curricula it endorses. It also provides textbooks and literature to help designers prepare to take a test to receive certification from the group.

Spitz said there are around 2,500 kitchen and bath designers who maintain their certification, and NKBA wants to test another 500 per year. Some testing could take place over the Intemet, as the group launched its first e-course on kitchen design during the show. Cecelia Balasz, the association's CEO, told members that she wants to put all levels of NKBA's training online by year's end.

The association also showed its first-ever television ad, a 30second spot it had begun airing on Home & Garden Television a few weeks earlier. The ads' purpose is to heighten NKBA's membership proffle nationwide. The ads are expected to reach eight million viewers this year, and are being supplemented by print ads in trade and consumer publications.

"Our brand awareness is not gigantic, but in the past we haven't been giving [our members] the tools to do this," said Larry Spangler, NKBA's director of marketing.

This campaign is a component of NKBA's more comprehensive effort to increase its membership. NKBA currently has 51 chapters in the United States and Canada, and its goal is to increase those chapters by 10 percent per year, and to be at 75 chapters by 2010, according to Spangler. Some of those new chapters could be outside North America, as Spitz said NKBA's goal is to become more "global." It currently has what he said were "affiliations" in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.