Manufacturer and supplier for the KBB industry Häfele is stepping up to help its customers build resilience and prepare for an anticipated market recovery in 2025.

The company is focusing on four areas: stock and speed of supply, support services, range expansion and product innovation to aid differentiation.

 “As we all know, the kitchen and bathroom market has been unpredictable throughout 2024, with some major brands and retailers, unfortunately, succumbing to challenging economic circumstances,” said Richard Curtis, managing director of Häfele.

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“In response, over the past 12 months, we’ve made strategic decisions in our business to support our customers in building resilience in theirs.

“We are cautiously optimistic for a recovery through 2025 and are doing all we can to help our partners prepare for an upturn.”

With inventory challenges cited as a significant concern for retailers, Häfele has boosted its stock levels.

“Many businesses can’t afford to be sitting with high levels of inventory, but they need to be able to respond more quickly,” added Richard Curtis.

“As a manufacturer and a distributor, we’ve increased our stock holding to support our customer base but also invested into our supply chain infrastructure to increase speed and agility.”

He continued: “Appliance availability is just one area of investment for us in 2024.

“Along with our premier partners Smeg, Rangemaster and Rayburn, earlier in the year we also partnered with Samsung to supply its major domestic appliances (MDA) to KBB and merchant sectors.

“Now, we can offer a market-leading 48-hour delivery on a range of appliance brands to retailers and their customers.”

Support services have been a further area of expansion and consolidation for Häfele to help with “pinch points”.

Its value added Häfele’s Service+ covers aspects from technical product advice and support, planning and specification advice, to custom- manufactured solutions and help with showroom or installation demonstrations

Häfele has also launched new products and extended top-performing ranges.

“There are signs of a recovery through 2025, although probably not until the second half of the year,” added Curtis.

“It’s a case of when, not if, so retailers, in particular, need to be prepared and have carved out their differentiator with a strong product offer.”

Häfele has launched 2,000 new products in 2024, including intelligent lighting and appliances, colourways across splashbacks, handles and drawers and introduced products from Grass and Hawa.

“We’ll be continuing 2025 in the same vein.

“We’ve been listening hard to our customers and in the new year you can expect more new innovative products and new programmes to support our customers to build and strengthen their business for the year ahead”, concluded Curtis.