Bathroom brand Hansgrohe has recently opened a new HQ in Warwick. We discover how it supports its retailers with improved accessibility to a Water Studio showroom, enhanced stock, and installer training under one roof.

Hansgrohe Group CEO Hans Juergen Kalmbach and managing director for Hansgrohe UK & Ireland, Jay Phillips

Five years in the making, and despite the challenges of Brexit and COVID, Hansgrohe Group has opened its new UK headquarters in Warwick.

Part of a £5million investment, the 40,000sqft headquarters is double the size of Hansgrohe’s previous UK HQ in Surrey and offers product showroom, customer services, installer training and stock distribution all under one roof.

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Created to improve accessibility and offer increased stockholding for its broader product portfolio, the purpose-built premises was officially opened by Hansgrohe Group CEO Hans Juergen Kalmbach and managing director for Hansgrohe UK & Ireland, Jay Phillips.

Large-scale showroom

Speaking at the opening, Jay Phillips commented on the decision for a larger HQ, which was partly driven by the company’s expansion into new product areas: “We saw potential to grow the business significantly.

“We had visibility of what was coming down the track and the expansion of our portfolio, moving into new categories with the launch of ceramics, bathroom furniture and mirrors giving us great potential in terms of addressable markets.”

As part of this, the company wanted to showcase its broader product portfolio in an inspiration environment, motivated by its existing Water Studio in Clerkenwell, London, created for the architectural community.

“We wanted to replicate something on a much bigger scale with our head office”, says Phillips and to enable ease of access for all its customers around the UK, Hansgrohe chose Warwick, in the Midlands, as a central location.

The premises includes 4,000sqft showroom space, the new Warwick Water Studio, and features its Axor and hansgrohe portfolio, complete with working displays.

And this is joined by the Installer Academy training centre for hands-on experience.

Although Hansgrohe first looked for existing premises, with such specific requirements, the company opted to build its own HQ which is split 70:30, with warehousing taking the majority of the space, and head office, Installer Academy and showroom the remainder.

Although the UK is already in the top five performing countries for Hansgrohe, according to chief sales director, Christophe Gourlan, Jay Phillips said: “We have got a great platform for the growth of the business.”

Category expansion

Hansgrohe is looking to grow its share not only in showering but also the bathroom market.

Having acquired bathroom drain specialist Easy Sanitary Solutions in 2020 and launched ceramics, furniture and mirrors into Europe at ISH in 2023, it has become a bathroom generalist rather than a brassware specialist.

It’s not the first time Hansgrohe has expanded its core categories, adding sinks to kitchen mixers, but Jay Phillips says the bathroom expansion offers far more sales opportunities.

The one-stop shop, holistic bathroom product category, followed consumer research which found they already believed Hansgrohe offered furniture and ceramics.

“So, for us, it was a very natural evolution”, said Phillips, “In all honesty, we were probably a late entrant into the market, although what I would add, it’s a comprehensive range. We are up to 1,000 SKUs.”

Targeting bricks and mortar showrooms, marketing director, Julie McLean explains the holistic bathroom concept plays into the independent specialists’ skillset, especially as designers look to combine finishes and materials in bathroom.

So, what has been the reaction from retailers? Jay Phillips explains: “It’s still quite early days because effectively we’ve only been supplying product into the market for less than six months.”

However, Phillips adds: “The initial reaction from customers to our ranges has been exceptional. We’re ahead of where we expected to be, in terms of showroom partners, displays and POS.

“We also picked up some early project specifications with hotels and housebuilders which probably we weren’t planning for that to be until 2025 or 2026.” In fact, Phillips states it is 30% up on its expectations for new product category sales.

And sales director, Christophe Gourlan points to the further development of the Hansgrohe business, with the launch of a smart toilet in China in 2019, followed by bathroom furniture and ceramics into the Chinese market two years’ later.

In 2022, it introduced washbasins into the Middle East and 2023 saw the first complete bathroom offering in Europe in 2023, which was expanded to the volume segment in 2024. “

We now talk about the wash place, the shower place and the toilet place”, says Gourlan. Although remaining tight lipped about plans for ISH 2025, it does give an indication of the direction of the company.

Sustainable bathrooms

However, the expansion of the company across product sectors, opening new factories and UK HQ, has not been at the expense of the environment.

CEO of Hansgrohe, Hans Juergen Kalmbach said sustainability has long been part of the DNA of the business, explaining former leader of the business, Klaus Grohe was a visionary, as he stated in the 1990s: “Climate change is already a reality today. When it comes to minimising CO₂ emissions, all of society needs to get involved. We’re paving the way today for the day after tomorrow.”

And Hans Juergen Kalmbach explained how the company and its products continue to save water, reduce carbon emissions and the improve circularity of resources.

He pointed out at ISH 2023, Hansgrohe introduced its Green Vision to reduce water and heat use by 90%, and therefore carbon emissions by 90% in the bathroom.

Hansgrohe now also uses renewable energy from a wind farm in the Black Forest. “Since 2022, all our global locations are climate neutral by Scope 1 and 2”, added Kalmbach. And solar panels are set to be installed on the roof of the UK HQ to provide electricity for the business with excess energy sold back to the grid.

Staying ambitious

Despite a testing economic background and “parachute land” in 2023, following the sales spike of COVID, Jay Phillips says the company has been “satisfied” meeting budget expectations for the first quarter.

“I think overall the market is still quite challenging. The macroeconomic indicators are quite positive with inflation at 3.2% and interest rates largely expected to be reduced across the summer, so I think that will breed more confidence into the market second half of the year and certainly into 2025.”

And Phillips believes the growth will be across its historic brassware business, as well as new product categories: “We have been growing share in showers and taps. The new categories, in terms of opening up the addressable market, gives us substantial incremental opportunities.”

He outlines a goal to outperform the market in 2024, forecasting growth of 5-10%.

Although a prominent brand in the bathroom industry, Kalmbach stated the company is far from complacent and uses football as an analogy of its competitive mindset: “We are always looking forward, exciting times are ahead of us.

“We need to stay ambitious and focus on where we need to improve if we want to stay ahead. We are one of the leading brands in our industry and we always want to win the Champions League.”