Kitchen sales are increasingly including the back wall in the sales process

Over twelve years ago, Bokmerk entered the kitchen industry with powder-coated aluminum panels. The company has since grown into a well-established brand with more than 700 dealers in the Netherlands. "The product appears to sell itself," says Marcel Bok, director/owner at Bokmerk. "After all: a wipe over and all stains are gone. How simple do you want it to be?"

The corona time, however, was exciting, Marcel acknowledges. "But those sleeper ships in the Suez Canal also caused a lot of stress. Aluminum was hardly available anymore, the kilogram price went sky high, while the kitchen market exploded with requests. So what do you do? Fortunately, thanks to smart purchasing, we only had to raise our prices once. I'm quite proud of that."

Whereas ten years ago hardly any new kitchen was sold including a back wall, it is finally becoming common practice to include it right in the sale. Removable paint is not enough, especially behind a cooktop and sink. Pushing up the material of the countertop often becomes too heavy. "That's exactly where we come in around the corner. Our backsplashes add atmosphere to the kitchen." 

Quality

"Powder-coated aluminum panels are simply a super solution for the walls in a kitchen. We're talking about thin material, made to measure, in many modern colors, the ends are coated along with the panels (so no finishing with profiles is necessary, ed.), they are scratch and impact-resistant and very easy to clean... No other material can compete with that." 

Good quality of powder-coated aluminum hinges on the pretreatment of the aluminum (preservation, ed.), Marcel continues. "This is done even before the coating process begins. This can be done in many different ways. If this doesn't happen properly, for example by skipping the pickling process, white streaks will develop over time near the cooking and rinsing area. Also, the panels cannot be processed properly: they will flake off. However, with our quality we are unique in the market. We have not yet come across another player who delivers the same quality. Unfortunately, the difficult part is that you cannot see from the outside how the coating has been applied. So time will have to tell. It's similar to the Quooker story. Those were also copied, and in the end they turned out to be the only best. I'm sure that in a few years the kitchen market will conclude the same about us. Time will tell!"

Marcel concludes, "To add to our quality and professionalism, we are also going to focus on our presentation in the market. Together with an advertising agency, we think we can make great strides in this. For example, we have decided to go to a trade fair in Germany. In addition, our dealer Dura Vermeer has encouraged us to think about corporate social responsibility (CSR). We have already taken action on this: all dealers can return the packaging material of our panels, and we will take care of the recycling. After all, sustainability belongs to all of us. We look to the future with confidence."