At the recent Poggenpohl showroom refurbishment, in Guildford, guests were introduced to the newly promoted UK managing director Simon Richmond. Taking over from Neil Bailey, who has been named managing director of Poggenpohl in the USA, Richmond said: "I've got big shoes to fill but I take on a fantastic business with a very established, integrated team of people." He said his focus was to grow business through its retail studios by targeting marketing spend to developers, architects and specifiers. In fact, these were among the invited guests to an evening event at the refreshed retail showroom, which featured a live swing band and the spoon-bending extraordinaire Uri Geller.
Nobia is entering negotiations with employees and their associations regarding a relocation of its Hygena brand manufacturing to the UK. The Hygena products are currently made in Stemwede, Germany, and Nobia also proposes to close the sale and production of kitchens for the German DIY market which also takes place there. It will mean that the Stemwede facility will focus on Nobia's Marlin bathroom furniture business. It is claimed the Stemwede facility is not competitive enough for the manufacture of these kitchens and the move will enable Nobia to capitalise on its economies of scale, by moving production towards larger, brand-independent factories. Nobia sells kitchens through 20 brands in Europe, including Magnet and Intuo in the UK, Hygena in France, ewe in Austria and Poggenpohl globally. The Nobia Group has around 7,400 employees and net sales of around SEK 13 billion.
