Part of the Middle-East headquartered Sanipex Group, Bagno Design has launched into the UK targeting architects, interior designers and independent bathroom showrooms.
It has opened a 4,200sq ft A&D (Architecture & Design Centre) in Clerkenwell, which is spread over two floors, and is targeting architects, interior designers and professional specifiers. The A&D Centre features products from Apaiser, Aqata, Geberit, Kaldewei, Vado and Vogue UK, which will be sold into the contract sector. In addition, it also showcases selected products from its high-end, own-brand product range.
Completing the A&D Centre is a mock-up room for trailing hotel schemes, meeting facilities for use by designers and their customers, workstations, Wi-Fi and video conferencing facilities.
The A&D Centre concept was launched in Qatar in May 2012 and there are currently 15 Bagno Design showrooms across the Middle East, Central and South Asia, with a further four showrooms planned across the globe.
In addition, Bagno Design is also set to launch a range of self-titled, own-brand products for independent bathroom showrooms in September. The company has already acquired warehousing, near Leeds, which will hold £500,000 of stock. And it expects to have a network of 75-80 independent retail showrooms, across the UK, by the end of next year.
Established in Dubai in 1994, as a Middle East representative for European manufacturers, Sanipex now operates in more than 30 countries, employs 260 people and had sales last year of around £55m. It operates in project, retail and wholesale channels, with its fastest growing channel being retail.
Sanipex is owned and managed by a group of British directors, led by group managing director Daryl Barker who commented: “Part of our global strategy is to be the project supplier of choice within Europe for bathroom fixtures and fittings, tiles and plumbing materials and the Clerkenwell A&D Centre will play a vital role in helping us to achieve this. London is increasingly seen as a hub for international hospitality projects and, with Clerkenwell home to over 2,000 international architectural practices; it is here that many of the specifications are decided.”
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