Delivered by the Bathroom Manufacturers Association (BMA), we offer an overview of the Bathroom & Kitchen Business Conference.

Based upon the theme ‘building a new future’, the Bathroom & Kitchen Business Conference, held at the Vale Hotel and Spa Resort in the Vale of Glamorgan, was attended by 170 delegates from across the industry.

It was facilitated by financial journalist Sally Bundock with the keynote speaker Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford.

Sponsored Video

Quarter sawn Tulipwood

Having campaigned to leave the EU, he explained how Brexit would be good for business, reporting it would open up trade opportunities with the rest of the world.

Duncan Smith was joined in the speaker programme by Claire Curtis-Thomas, chief executive of construction product industry certification body the British Board of Agrément (BBA).

She gave a presentation about how the Government’s attitude to compliance is changing, particularly in the wake of the Grenfell disaster.

And Mark Berrisford-Smith, head of economics for HSBC UK commercial banking, considered how businesses can prepare for economic changes both in the run-up to Brexit and following the UK’s departure from the EU.

In addition to changes in the political landscape, the Bathroom & Kitchen Business Conference considered how society is changing.

Behavioural therapist William Higham from The Next Big Thing provided an insight into how businesses can track changes and influence consumers’ needs to adapt to provide new revenue streams.

His theories were supported by James Lawrence, founder and owner of YouTube channel and website plumberparts.co.uk, who talked about how to harness the use of video content to boost a brand.

In conjunction with market analyst Trend Monitor, the BMA also revealed research findings into consumer behaviour to identify the influencing factors which affect bathroom purchasing.

It saw 517 participants take part in an online survey about bathroom purchasing trends, with a further 50 people taking part in a diary-based activity detailing their use of space for its Behind the Bathroom Door report.

BMA CEO Yvonne Orgill, who announced her intention to step down from the full-time role in 12 months’ time, said the study revealed consumers were influenced to buy products if they had more information about water efficiency.

She exclaimed: “The industry needs to wake up to the fact that they are going to have to take this issue seriously…

“Our results show that more than 80% of respondents said water efficiency was quite or very important when purchasing a WC or a shower.

“Yet, almost 40% were not made aware of how much water the products would use.”

Orgill concluded: “We know that manufacturers have water efficient products and they have the Water Label that they can use to demonstrate this.

“There are already 143 brands supporting it with 11,000 products.

“If more companies took the Water Label on board, we could collectively make more of a difference and they would sell more products too: a win-win for all.”