The inaugural Kitchen and Bathroom Forum hosted by the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) took place at Roca’s new conference and showroom facility in Leicester last week (12 November).
The newly elected Chairman, Paul Bence (managing director of the George Bence group) led the proceedings to a full-house of 74 members.
Presentations included a BMF update from BMF CEO John Newcomb, then Nyssa Patel (BMF Industry Analyst/Economist) gave a K & B market report. Jamie Welch (Roca) and Tom Reynolds (BMA) gave an economic and political update to members, then Renee Mascari (Mascari) talked members through kitchen design and, in particular, the use of open living spaces. Mark Parrish (Cortexa) generated a lot of interest in the BMF Building Blocks training, then Mike Tattam (Lakes Showering Spaces) highlighted the importance of showrooms. Finally, Ben Roberts (Virtual Worlds) gave an interactive and entertaining look into the world of 4D showrooms and their benefits.
The forum closed with a very informative question and answer session, involving all the speakers, where members took the chance to discuss and share their own input in the points raised during the day.
Chairman, Paul Bence said: “I very much enjoyed chairing the new BMF K&B Forum, with very engaging and enlightening industry speakers. As discussed, there is so much opportunity for merchants to get involved with this sector to grow and diversify their businesses, and I actively encourage more members to get involved in future forums.”
BMF CEO John Newcomb said: “This was an excellent launch, addressing many aspects of the kitchen and bathroom supply chain. It was great to see such a huge attendance from our members at this first forum. Our thanks go to Paul Bence for chairing this event, all the great speakers, to Roca for offering their amazing new venue to launch this new forum and to Roca and Schneider for the ‘goodie bag’ for members.
Following the huge response to this new forum, the BMF is now actively looking for larger venues for the next K&B Forum in 2020.
