Here is a video of the Pedini stand, at Eurocucina 2010, in Milano - enjoy!

Pedini Kitchens - Eurocucina 2010, Milan, Italy

Pedini - Eurocucina 2010, Milan, Italy

Pedini Kitchens - Eurocucina 2010, Milan, Italy

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Now that this blog is getting so much traffic, from professionals in the trade, I figured it will be a great place to get your votes.

All that I’m asking for, is your personal TOP 10 list (or TOP 5, if you have no time) of European kitchen brands. You just need to list the brands, in the order that you think.

Please specify what category you are ranking them on - you can rate one category or all of them (one at a time). These are the categories:

- Design and Innovation (style, as well as technology).
- Product Quality.
- Value - quality to price ratio.
- Customer Service - to the dealer and the end user.

There are only 2 requirements -
1. That the product is made in Europe.
2. That the company has a network of dealers, in and outside of Europe.

That’s it - looking forward to see your votes and if you wish to not have your vote published here, just note it on your response and I will insure to keep it private or publish it for you, without your name, which ever you prefer.

THANKS!

kitchenguy

Today (Saturday) has been a very strange day. Many of the show attendees, as well as exhibitors, realize now that they will not be able to go home as planned. Most of Europe is “blocked,” as volcanic ash from Iceland has shut down airports everywhere until further notice.

Nevertheless, the show must go on. Today, the collection of stands I visited included Pedini and Alno, two brands that are well-established in the U. S.; Mobalpa and Torcetti, which are less known in the American market; and two smaller unknown companies on these shores: Kvanum and L’Ottocento.

One of Germany’s better known brands, Alno, along with Wellmann and a handful of other “sister companies,” is part of the Alno Group, which is one of the largest kitchen manufacturers in the world. Nevertheless, the rumor on the show floor was that, like a few other major kitchen players, the company has been experiencing some financial difficulties lately. The recent pull-out of Alno USA from the American market may have been an early sign.

Regardless, Alno still had a very generous-sized stand at Eurocucina this year, which offered one very unusual display: a kitchen shaped like a boat! Let’s hope its boat stays afloat…

By comparison, Pedini is a much smaller company that has grown despite the global recession. Its stand was double the size of that in 2008, and the company has just completed construction on a new factory that will significantly increase its production capacity. It has also added new showrooms around the world, as well as two in the U.S.-one in New York and one in Los Angeles.

In addition to displaying popular models, which have been expanded with new options, colors and finishes,

the stand showed Magika (below), a new budget-driven model.

Torchetti and Mobalpa are two brands that do not exist in the United States (as far as I know), but I wanted to share them with you because both exhibited some unique ideas: Torchetti’s striking design island

and Mobalpa’s concept kitchen, which consisted of an induction cooktop built into a Corian top.

L’Ottocento is a small Italian company that produces more traditional-style kitchens, which I feel, would appeal to American designers both in aesthetics and design ideas.

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Kvanum has been the only Swedish manufacturer to ever show at Eurocucina, according to the company. And interestingly enough, it actually has a small showroom in San Francisco. Do its designs look familiar?

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Image of the entrance to the show.

Today I’m reporting to you on two completely different categories of kitchen cabinet companies. These are: 1) the well-established brands, such as Poggenpohl, Varenna and Allmilmö, and 2) an entirely different part of the industry that is hardly known on our side of the pond- traditional Italian kitchens companies-that includes manufacturers like Jumbo Collection, Gianluca Donati and Verona.

As always, Varenna had a large stand (booth) that was well-appointed. It offered lots of great products and innovative designs that featured interesting finishes and novel uses of materials.

By comparison, Poggenpohl’s stand, though very spacious, was somewhat boring with displays that were somewhat predictable. From an esteemed brand such as Poggenpohl, one would expect a more exciting showing…

Allmilmö offered a mixed bag with some displays incorporating cool ideas-like incorporating a LaCornue Rotisserie in a modern setting-and others that felt small and a bit outdated. Of the latter, most were of the same models that the company has shown before.

Eurocucina is not, however, just about contemporary-style kitchens. For more traditional- or classic-inspired cabinetry, there’s an established segment of the European kitchen industry that is hardly known in the U.S. Following are some examples:

Most of these companies go to Russia and other former Soviet Union republics, as well as the Middle East, for their production. At the show, some of these companies have salespeople that only speak Russian and/or Arabic.

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It is now official-the dominant trend at Eurocucina this year is green and when it comes to colors, think white, off-white, brown/grey and dark brown.

From concrete or stone kitchens (and not only counters, but doors, too!),

Steinküche from Steininger Designers

BETONküche10 from Steininger Designers

to cedar

Laundry from Riva 1920

Riva 1920’s booth

Another view of Riva 1920’s booth and metal cabinets, kitchen manufacturers are all showing environmentally friendly products.

I’m also seeing lots of white kitchens in high-gloss finishes, textured laminates and veneers, as well as white and dark wood combinations. What little color there is seems to be limited to glass kitchens, but most of these are white, too.

Yellow glass kitchen from Lago Store.

Even the stands-or booths-themselves have taken on a “green” or eco-friendly look just to drive the point home.

Toncelli’s booth

A “green” look for Comprex‘ booth

But so far, I haven’t seen much in terms of new innovation or new breakthrough technology. What I am seeing is lots of motorized doors and drawers, induction cooktops and very sleek appliances. Overall, the kitchens all have very “clean” lines and are even more minimalistic than before.

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On Tuesday afternoon, the day before the show started, I visited Zona Tortona-Milan’s Design District-for the “pre-show” events that take place on the day prior to the Milan Fair.

If these events are any indication of what we are about to see in the actual show, then we are going to see a lot of green products in just about every category; whether it’s ceramic tile, quartz counter, appliances or cabinets, green is it! The manufacturers are going out of their way to make sure that we do not mistake their new line of products for anything but the greenest, most environmentally friendly products on the face of our ozone-layered earth.

• WhirlpoolKitchenAid introduced a full line of appliances that uses less energy, either via induction cooktops or other means.

• Samsungchose to feature a line-up of green appliances, but surrounded them with lots of green grass all over the stand, green plants coming out of the fridge and everywhere you look. There were even people, dressed in green aprons(!).

• Consentino, which makes ECO (and Silestone), built an entire stand out of recycled materials. The company wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss the fact that its counters are made of recycled materials (well, at least a portion of them), so they wrote it on the wall in big letters.

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• Not to be outdone, ceramic tile supplierMosaeven showed how it has greened its process of making tile, by maintaining green production, shipping of the product and even recycling it afterwards (which was a new one for me…).

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Pedini Kitchens New factory

Pedini also invested in modern machinery that will speed up the production process, will improve the products quality control and will allow an even more automated production line, than the much automated one used till now. In addition, the new computerized production line will decrease the possibility of damages and errors and will improve the employees work conditions. The new line will independently move the packaged product all the way to the truck or container automatically.

Interior shot of the new plant

The expansion has been just completed and the new machinery will be installed next month (May, 2010). Pedini is scheduled to start production, in the new facility, in September and to have everything at ‘full speed’ by January of 2011.

Loading docks at Pedini

Pedini SpA, who have been adhering to environmentally friendly practices in their production line for many years, has also invested recently in a Solar Energy System that will generate an annual production of 250.000 kw. The benefit - during the life of this system (30 years), a saving equal to 3.990.000 kg of CO2 that would have been released into the atmosphere!

The new system will be installed in the new factory and will have zero environmental impact, because the panels will be integrated into the roof of the new production facility.

Pedini

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Mandemakers Kitchens

With Eurocucina just around the corner, some big kitchen industry news - In an official statement, Thursday, Feb. 25th, 2010, Nobia AB chief, Mr. Preben Bager announced that Nobia (the world’s largest manufacturer and seller of kitchens), sold the Pronorm brand and their 50% shares of Culinoma to the Dutch retailer Mandemakers. The price - 493 million SEK, the equivalent of just under 50 million Euro and a book value loss of 77 million SEK(!)

Nobia AB Group

The announcement did not come as a total surprise - according to KBB Review, the Nobia Group’s sales for its 2009 financial year, which runs from January to December, came to SKr 15.4 billion (£1.36 billion), down 4% from the same period in 2008. Also, its loss after tax was SKr 79 million compared to a profit for 2008 of SKr 529 million - a 115% drop! The company blames this on the declining market demand, particularly in the Nordic region, and the cost of restructuring as it closed various factories

Pronorm Kitchens

The other major brands of the Nobia Group include HTH and Invita in Denmark; Novart with the brands A la Carte, Petra and Parma in Finland; Norema and Sidgal in Norway; Marbodal and Myresjokok in Sweden; Optifit, and Poggenpohl in Continental European countries.

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The Countdown to Eurocucina Has Started!

A decision has been made not to include the biennial SaloneUfficio, the International Biennial Workspace Exhibition this year, in an endeavor to further underpin the synergy between the kitchen and bathroom worlds and to establish a direct link between the office and lighting worlds. SaloneUfficio will therefore return in 2011.

Eurocucina / International Kitchen Furniture Exhibition

The 313,385 public presences in 2009, consisting of operators, general public and the press, who were proof of the quality of both the commercial offering and the exhibition system, provide the catalyst for this year’s event.

Salone Internazionale del Mobile

Alongside the trade fair proper, the collateral event that has long been the icing on the Saloni cake will be particularly important: a journey into the world of “gathering round the table”, dismantled and celebrated in its various incarnations through its settings and its utensils.
The biennial SaloneUfficio has refocused greater visibility on the office space. The Office as Creative Hub project provided schemes designed to enhance the human and creative dimension within the workplace.
Lastly, at SaloneSatellite, 570 young designers and 22 international design schools with 220 students showcased ideas and projects inspired by creativity, ecology and sustainability.

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The IMM Cologne show

Yes, the show that we have already given up on and became just a faded memory, is trying to make a comeback - according to IMM, the orgenaizers, in 2011, parallel to the imm cologne, the cathedral city will be playing host to the LivingKitchen® fair for the first time next year.

The international kitchen trade fair will take place as an independent event every two years. It will have three Public Days and aims to bring together renowned national and international exhibitors from the entire kitchen industry. LivingKitchen® won’t just be showcasing kitchen furniture and fitted appliances but sinks, fittings, kitchen worktops and accessories, lighting and kitchen-related services as well. A year before the fair opens its doors, around 30 leading companies have already registered to take part.

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