British kitchen furniture brand LochAnna Kitchens is set to open a two-storey trade showroom, this autumn, near its Bolton headquarters.

Designed to be aspirational, the showroom will include more than 15 displays from its LochAnna, Form handleless and Evo trade collections.

In addition, it will also feature a working kitchen with cooking demonstrations together with brands such as Neff, CDA and Quooker.

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Completing the showroom space will be a conferencing area with state-of-the-art media facilities.

Kitchen category manager Sinead Trainor explained: “We’ve always wanted somewhere to meet customers, to show off our products and to provide training.”

It has decided rather than take part in trade exhibition Kbb Birmingham, it would invest in a space that could be used all year-round.

Sinead Trainor commented: “Kbb 2020 was a game-changer for us. It brought in so many leads which has allowed us to build relationships with customers who perhaps hadn’t considered us before – and it’s still bringing in new customers now – but we want a facility that gives us what Kbb did, every day of the year.

“We feel like our new trade showroom will capture that magic and be another step change for LochAnna.

“Delivering our other ongoing projects must take priority so, as much as we would like to be involved with Kbb 2022, we have had to accept that we’re not super-human!”

In the 12 months since opening after the first lockdown in Spring 2020, the company has also increased its workforce by more than 25% to cope with the uplift in business volume.

LochAnna believes it has capitalised from people not taking a holiday abroad and having some money now set aside choosing to invest in home improvements.

According to LochAnna, turnover during the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year is up over 30% and the second quarter is projected to grow by more than 40% on quarter one.

Trainor added: “We had a lot of plans in place prior to lockdown, so instead of holding off, we just went for it.

“March 2021 was our best ever month…then April grew again. We see this being a year of breaking our own records!

“Despite the uncertainty, we seemed to hit the market at the right time when our brochures launched last August and November, when people were looking for something positive, new, interesting and different.

“There was pent-up demand initially and that has continued right into this year as well. I’ve never known anything like it.”