Archive for October, 2009

EuroBath & Tile recently held an open house event, October 14th, prior to the DPHA show in Colorado Springs. The open house was held in their Denver, CO showroom. (EuroBath & Tile has two showrooms – Denver and Avon (Vail) with a third showroom opening November 1st in Boulder.) BLANCO sales representatives, Craig Iverson and Jane Horton from Architectural Design Sales assisted with the open house which featured the new FLOW™ sink. The event attracted 400 designers, architects, specifiers and DPHA board members.

EuroBath & Tile's open house was well-attended by the design community.

Jane Horton of Architectural Design Sales prominently displays the FLOW sink with QUADRIS™ faucet during the open house.

BLANCO is proud to announce that it will join the Forté Buying Group as a Preferred Vendor, effective November 1.

Forté is the premier high-end buying group in the decorative plumbing and hardware industry, and attracts market leaders from affluent pockets and metropolitan areas throughout the United States and Canada. Under the Forté umbrella are approximately 300 of the most influential luxury showrooms in North America. Forté Preferred Vendors are the leading manufacturers of decorative plumbing and hardware products sold in limited distribution venues. For the consumer and the design community, BLANCO’s partnership with Forté marks another positive step forward in the growth of the brand here in the United States.

Jeff Valles, Membership Director of the Forté Group states, “One of BLANCO’s strengths is its amazing selection, but that also makes it harder for a consumer to pick the right product for their home. While you can find all the products online, you can’t feel them or interact with them. When a customer visits a Forté showroom, they can find expert advise and help in selecting the products that will match their style and functional needs.”

BLANCO sales representatives weighed in with their thoughts on this exciting new Forté partnership:

Barry Friedman, Principal of Pan American Sales & Marketing in Florida believes, “the addition to the Forté buying group will help to solidify and strengthen our position with existing dealers by providing a compelling entrée for showrooms to display more of our BLANCO product.”

Tom Hart of Hart, Travers and Associates in Illinois commented on how his agency will capitalize on this new partnership,“BLANCO’s Forté membership will allow us to increase our showroom presence, creating an even stronger bond with BLANCO while providing more display options for consumers to see and touch.”

Valles continues, “Don’t be afraid to talk about Forté with your showrooms. Be the catalyst. Showrooms who are in the buying group will give you more time, more displays and more opportunities. It helps everyone – the consumer, the designer and the showroom manager. BLANCO is a more profitable partner for them as part of this prestigious buying group.”

BLANCO will be introducing a library of digital brochures for 2010 – beginning with the PRECISION™ 16″ eBrochure. The digital brochure represents an innovative new sales tool that tells the Precision 16” story and can easily be shared with customers. All eBrochures will be housed on blancobydesign.com both from links on the lower right hand side of the home page as well as on the eBrochure tab at the top.

The eBrochure is an interactive, online brochure that “lives” on the web (it is not a static PDF document) – you can turn pages, zoom in, or make notes on your favorite pages.

The advantages of eBrochures:

• It’s a quick, easy, way to access BLANCO literature anytime, anywhere.
• Forward the eBrochure to a colleague or save to your desktop for easy reference.
• Print only the pages you need, or the entire document if you wish.
• Search by keyword to quickly locate specific information within the brochure.
• Bookmark and save as a favorite on your computer.
• You can even share a link to the eBrochure on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

With the introduction of eBrochures, like PRECISION 16″, BLANCO is taking a conscious step toward being more green by printing less paper literature. The eBrochures also link to the BLANCO website to allow for quick reference.

Look for additional eBrochures to follow in 2010.

BLANCO continues to garner news coverage for awards won (Red Dot, Professional Builder Top 100 New Products) as well as for launching innovative new styles and technologies. In a year where many competitors kept their heads down, BLANCO has earned over 45 million PR impressions!

Below, please enjoy our latest public relations hits from Houston House & Home, KBDN, HousingZone.com, Professional Builder, Professional Remodeler, iReport, Surroundings and K+BB. MicroEdge™, FLOW™ and SILGRANIT® II are just some of the new products making headlines.

Houston House & Home featured SILGRANIT II in its Recession Redo's.

SILGRANIT II is what's new in KBDN.

MicroEdge as featured on HousingZone.com for being a top 100 product.

MicroEdge as featured in Professional Builder

MicroEdge as featured in Professional Remodeler for Top 100 New Products Award.

This trend article about BLANCO sinks appeared in Houston Chronicle and on CNN's iReport.

Metropolitan Home Showtime Kitchen with BLANCO appeared on the design blog Surroundings.

K+BB featured BLANCO's Red Dot award-winning FLOW sink.

Here’s the hottest buzz – from the latest BLANCO designs featured in leading magazines. BLANCO sinks and faucets are an essential ingredient for a well-designed kitchen.

This Island kitchen features a durable and stylish SILGRANIT® II sink in metallic gray, which contrasts nicely with the black countertop.

Better Homes & Gardens took a page to spotlight this sleek WAVE sink matched with a Victorian style faucet. Making what's old, feel fresh and new again.

As featured in Trends - this interesting sink configuration is not a traditional double bowl - but two separate STEELART® sinks paired together to create a unique custom look.

Woman's Day noted that "BLANCO's (PRECISION™) zero radio sink poses a restful contrast to the countertop."

Washington/Maryland Home & Design featured a PERFORMA single bowl in its "Best of Class" kitchen design category.

BLANCO sinks are all-aboard this yacht as featured in Ocean Navigator!