Fresh from opening the doors of a new showroom and training facility, Schlüter-Systems UK head of sales Lee Rowland talks to Amelia Thorpe about the company's high-end bathroom sector plans.
Celebrating 30 years in the UK, Schlüter-Systems has long been known for tile and stone installation solutions and is well established in the tile distribution market. But what may be less well known is that the business has also been turning its attention to the high-end bathroom market, as head of sales, Lee Rowland explains. "Bathroom installers can avoid a Frankenstein solution," he says. "With our products, there will be no compatibility issues and customers can work with one provider for the complete solution, rather than dealing with 3, 4 or 5 – and certainly no one offers the training that we do."
The push is one of the reasons that Schlüter has just opened a new 980sq m extension to its UK HQ in Coalville, Leicestershire. The extension includes warehousing, offices, a gallery with 24 displays and a training facility, designed to welcome tile installers, bathroom installers and general contractors. "The perception is that our products are complicated and difficult to understand, but this is a misconception, and therefore training is absolutely key to break those barriers down," says Rowland, 45, who has worked for the company for a decade. "Once fully up and running, we will have almost double the training capacity of before and expect to train about 1,000 people next year."
Schlüter was founded in 1966 in Germany by master tiler, Werner Schlüter. "The legend goes that Werner was on a project, wondering how to protect the edge of tiles under some door thresholds, so he took a piece of brass to the local fabricator and asked them to product a right angle – and that led to the original finishing profile, Schlüter-Schiene," says Rowland.
Today, the multinational company is run by Werner’s sons, Udo and Marc Schlüter, and remains owned by the family today. It produces over 10,000 products, all designed and manufactured at its factory in Germany. The range covers underfloor heating, uncoupling membranes, tile edge protection, tile backer boards, waterproofing products, wet room drainage, tile edge protection, bathroom accessories and lighting systems. "We have competitors in certain areas, but no one does everything that we do," says Rowland, who also points to specific USPs for individual products, such as the thermal fleece underneath its underfloor heating uncoupling mat, designed to reflect heat upwards, saving energy and offering a quicker reaction time, or the grout space on its tile trim designed to provide a perfect, crisp line.
Rowland says that the company began entering the premium bathroom sector at the beginning of 2022, after a period of analysis of the business during lockdown, and is already tracking above target. "It’s going to be a great growth area and it’s a fantastic opportunity," he says. "We are looking for bathroom showrooms who want the best products and solutions, probably those with a team of designers and perhaps their own installation team and those that offer a full turnkey solution."
"As we develop new areas of the market, we want to welcome more people for training," says Rowland. "At Schluter, we believe in constant reinvestment and commitment to quality, and the customer experience must replicate that, down to the bricks and mortar of the extension," he says.
