HART TOheartH2 2014 cphart.co.uk

TILE GURU 2

WEEK IN THE LIFEOF A C.P. HART DESIGNER 2

SERVICE AT HART 2

WATERLOO 3

SHOWROOM NEWS 4

MAJOR DEVELOPERSCHOOSE C.P. HART 4

SHOWROOM NEWS 4

INTERNET FRIEND OR FOE 4

FITTING CONCLUSION 4

SPORTS CHALLENGE 4

INSIDE

Who buys C.P. Hart? The thing I love most about this business is the loyalty of our clients, country-wide. We are selected time and time again by top trade professionals – architects, interior designers, builders and plumbers – and also by retail customers, each time they move house or refurbish. Client confi dentiality precludes me from naming names but we are supplying the residents of rural palaces with as much pride as we do urban pied-a-terres.

There is no ‘silver bullet’ to explain this loyalty. It stems from many factors, led by the dedication of the C.P. Hart team.

PALACES TO PIED-A-TERRESResearch tells us that near the top of the list are:

- Passion for our products, developed with leading designers and manufacturers, world wide and usually ‘fi rst to market’

- Our showrooms: here clients sift their own bathroom plans and are inspired by our room sets – nowhere more so than in our fl agship showroom near London’s Waterloo, certainly Britain’s largest for luxury bathroom products.

- Design and product advice from the best-trained and most client-oriented sales team in the industry

- Our commitment to quality and service, during and after order placement.

We don’t get it right all the time – but when we make a mistake I cannot think of a single person in our business who will not do everything possible to put it right. Demanding people, those princes, after all!

FIRST TO MARKET LAUNCHES

In September and October C.P. Hart will be launching exciting new products from a number of top manufacturers - Gessi, Dornbracht, Hansgrohe and Aquamass. We are very proud to introduce two new brands to the UK: Karol and Neutra. Rachel Martin, C.P. Hart’s Merchandising Director, chooses some highlights:

“Karol has been making bathroom furniture in its factory in Tuscany for over 30 years. The Florentine infl uence is clear in its gorgeous, glamorous Bania collection, showing sensual curves and baroque touches. Neutra’s heritage is in stone and natural materials, and we fell in love with their new Neos range.”

Turning to established suppliers Rachel comments “Gessi is now fi rmly established here as a luxury brassware brand with Italian fl air. Its highly contemporary design is inspired by classical shapes and structures, as epitomised in their new Eleganza range.

Aquamass is another small designer and manufacturer, but one we’ve worked in partnership with for many years. Their new Modulo bath is a very clever idea: a free standing bath that comes in over 30 variations of form, from ledges and shelves to a fully enclosed piece of furniture with storage.

German brassware brands Dornbracht and Hansgrohe are both launching innovative new products. Dornbracht’s SmartWater is the most exciting use of digital

technology we’ve yet seen in the bathroom. There is no simple way to describe everything it can do, but it is well worth visiting our Waterloo showroom for a demonstration. Philippe Starck’s latest work for Hansgrohe, the Starck V, is a strikingly original concept. The tap has a glass pillar and spout designed to show a vortex of water bubbling up from the supply.”

All of these will be launched at our Waterloo showroom.

On the evening of Thursday 9th October C.P. Hart will be holding a launch party for bathroom trade professionals and journalists.

Please register your interest in attending at www.cphart.co.uk/events

Product innovation is at the heart of our business. We believe that no one spends more time seeking out the best new designs, world-wide.

Neos by Neutra

Gessi Eleganza BrasswareHansgrohe Starck V

But all our customers are welcome to visit the showroom at any time to see the world’s latest in luxury bathroom design.

By Richard Reynolds, Chairman

Tiles have always been part of our business, but for the first time in 2014 C.P. Hart has launched its own Tile Collections. Sourced from designers and manufacturers from Italy and Spain, the aim has been to provide an ‘essentials’ range of wall and floor tiles to complement any bathroom style.

Offering our own Tile Collections will simplify the selection and buying process for many customers, especially as these ranges will be available from stock. Grout will be available in a wide range of colours – not quite fifty shades – which can be delivered alongside the tiles.

Our new Tile Collections Catalogue will be in showrooms from September.

TILE GURUH2 2014 PAGE 2

C.P. Hart’s design service offers clients a complete bathroom design consultancy, from space planning and product specification to colours, textures and finishes. An interior designer for your bathroom. Patrick MacPherson is one of our designers at Waterloo. We asked him to describe his week.

“Monday morning begins with a 14 mile cycle to work. More invigorating than a double espresso! I start by booking my place at Decorex 2014, the UK’s leading interior design exhibition. I am keen to attend a seminar on innovative and sustainable bathroom products. In the afternoon I refine bathroom plans for a proposed development of Kensington apartments.

On Tuesday I have a meeting with one of our Contracts team and their client. The project is a new hotel in South West London, requiring 23 bathrooms. We take her on a tour of our Waterloo showroom and we discuss possible styles.

Wednesday is spent planning a sample room for the hotel. We use a 3D design tool to create photo-realistic images of the bathroom design. It’s a fun project, as the client identified eccentric, vibrant and quirky styles so I have plenty of creative freedom.

In the evening a few of us go to the Atrium lighting showroom near Old Street for their opening night. Lighting is an important and often

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A C.P. HART DESIGNER

neglected part of any bathroom design, and we like to see the latest trends.

On Thursday I receive almost instant feedback on the designs and 3D images I created for the hotel project. The client is very happy with the concepts, so I start the detailed planning process for all 23 bathrooms.

On Friday afternoon I visit a client near Hampstead Heath. I take photos and precise dimensions of two bathrooms and discuss design ideas with the owner. I love site visits. There is no substitute for seeing the space for yourself, and talking to the client face to face. I return late to Waterloo, then it’s that cycle ride home: it’s been an exciting and rewarding week.”

Paul Rowland, Managing Director Every year we aim to add services that will benefit all our customers. Our investment last year in building a Training Academy at Waterloo and developing a 3 year training programme for our sales consultants is paying dividends in the quality of advice we can now provide. There are also practical improvements - every advisor now uses a 2D computer-aided design package to produce clearer bathroom plans for customers.Bathroom sector expertise – keeping abreast of the latest and best - is something C.P. Hart has always been dedicated to, but our Merchandising and Buying team are now sharing it more widely, through their regular publication of Trend Reports. Look out for a new report covering the Cersaie bathrooms and tile event in Bologna in September. The biannual ISH exhibition in

SERVICE AT HARTFrankfurt follows early in 2015, and is eagerly awaited by many architects, developers and interior designers. We will be taking a group on an ‘insiders’ tour of the event, so if you’re interested in joining us, please let me know..

People are at the heart of our business, and it is through their attitude, their experience and their belief in putting the customer first that C.P. Hart thrives. What we all do is shaped, of course, by what our customers tell us. We are always keen to receive feedback, positive or negative, and if you have any suggestions for new services or other improvements please contact me directly on paulrowland@cphart.co.uk

3D Computer model of Patrick’s design

Patrick MacPherson

New Aalto Collagna tile range

C.P. Hart Contracts continues to grow, servicing larger residential, commercial and hotel developments and providing specialist expertise in regulatory issues around accessibility and sustainability.

C.P. Hart is often trusted with the most sensitive of projects, as Carolyn Harrison, Contacts Manager, explains. “We have plenty of experience working on listed buildings or projects where the client wants to reflect the heritage of the area. Our bathrooms in the redevelopment of 58 Myddleton Square are beautiful, blending Georgian style with modern luxury. We’ve just started working with The Sloane Club in Chelsea, one of the few London clubs to have been set up by women. We need to match the splendour of the surroundings with products of impeccable style and quality.”

MAJOR DEVELOPERS CHOOSE C.P. HART

H2 2014 PAGE 3

One of our challenges is the ever tighter regulatory regime. We need to demonstrate compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act, for example, as well as meeting the latest water usage requirements. Our clients trust us to manage this. And we have the facilities to help them make informed decisions, with our unique test rig at Waterloo, where different brassware can be compared for performance and water consumption. This working display was instrumental in winning the supply contracts for Embassy Gardens, for example.”

Myddleton Square

By the 1960’s, Charles Hart and his sons Tom and John had five C.P. Hart premises around London Road in Southwark. When this whole area was secured for redevelopment (there was still considerable post WW2 bomb damage left unrepaired) the brothers decided to aim for consolidation into a single property. Large retail spaces in central London were even harder to find then they are now, but eventually they heard about a wine merchant who was keen to move its wine stocks out of town. The premises, a cavernous row of dirty arches underneath the Southern Railway at Waterloo, set back from the main road, was little more than a lock-up. The Harts were offered a long lease, and said yes.

WATERLOO – OUR FLAGSHIP SHOWROOM

Your first trip to C.P. Hart Waterloo will retrace Tom and John’s steps, down an unpromising alley to a row of arches. What greets you now – an Aladdin’s cave of luxury bathrooms – is a testament to their vision. They believed that to judge quality you needed to see, touch and test. That philosophy still applies. We have 39 free-standing baths (to sit in), over 100 taps (examine close up the finish and movement) and a veritable rain storm of showers (test the water flow in our working shower trough).

C.P. Hart Waterloo cannot be seen from the street. Many people in Southwark don’t realise it’s there. It has to be discovered. If you still need convincing, why not watch our new 2 minute film about the showroom on our web-site? www.cphart.co.uk/waterloo

The showroom is constantly growing and evolving. By autumn this year nearly a third of the showroom will have been updated or completely refurbished. No British showroom shows more of the world’s latest luxury bathroom products.

Marcel Wanders Collection at C.P. Hart Waterloo

Hayon Organico at C.P. Hart WaterlooUK’s largest luxury bathroom showroom

H2 2014 PAGE 4

Publ ished by C .P. HART © 2014

VISIT OUR WEBSITE CPHART.CO.UK OR ONE OF OUR THIRTEEN SHOWROOMS

WATERLOOCHESLEACHISWICK

FULHAMMUSWELL HILLNOTTING HILL

PRIMROSE HILLREGENTS PARK RDWIMBLEDON

GUILDFORDMANCHESTERST ALBANSTUNBRIDGE WELLS

SHOWROOM NEWSC.P. Hart’s Tunbridge Wells showroom is now 4 years old. A stone’s throw from the famous Pantiles arcade, it has 3 beautiful floors of bathroom displays. Every C.P. Hart attracts a slightly different clientele, and we found that while the avant-garde designs in the basement were much admired, they were seldom selected. So we have now redesigned that whole area and introduced a new ‘Contemporary Classic’ theme with products attuned to the more traditional tastes and properties in and around Tunbridge Wells. The transformation is remarkable. The Art Deco-influenced Claridge furniture and Adare twin basin console rub shoulders with the more contemporary styling of Dogi and Metaflora furniture, and bespoke Matki shower units.

Our Manchester Deansgate showroom is also 4 years old. As our only Northern outpost (so far) it has to represent all the design styles that C.P.

Hart offers. Part of its current refurbishment, underway as we write, will feature a taste of ‘Contemporary Classic’ too (Adare, Claridge and Dogi are on order) but also a fresh injection of Italian flair. There will be new displays from designers Marcel Wanders and Jaime Hayon, Gessi Mimi brassware and Bania Urban Chic as well as furniture from Karol, one of the ranges we are introducing to the UK market.

As with all our showrooms we try to provide thinking space. Manchester is to have a larger and more comfortable seating area, more working displays, and an interactive touchscreen where the full product portfolio can be explored and digital moodboards created.

Waterloo, Tunbridge Wells and Manchester head the list of current upgrades but the other showrooms will not be far behind them.

INTERNET – C.P. HART FRIEND OR FOE? Friend! That’s easy, because we can see from our web statistics how many of our potential customers are using www.cphart.co.uk to research their bathroom purchases. Growth of website access is not quite exponential but it is growing very fast.

But at the luxury end of the bathroom market, where most of C.P. Hart’s sales come from, even the best designed website can only go so far. And that worries us because we know customers can be misled by clever photography into buying products that look good but, frankly, are not.

Of course it’s possible to transact on-line – C.P. Hart’s internet purchases have grown four fold in the last year – but we recommend on-line buying only for the most confident purchaser. For most customers a showroom visit is essential to achieve something fantastic. Only by touching and feeling can you truly appreciate the quality of the products you intend to buy. Then by all means order on-line with confidence.

Meet our Installer Manager, Danilo Lara. Danny has spent the last 6 months driving across Britain to evaluate every kind of bathroom installation, meeting builders, plumbers and fitters on site.

The result of Danny’s audit is a list of C.P. Hart Approved Installers. All have more than 3 years of training and all relevant qualifications. We also double check that recommended installers and their employees do not have any criminal convictions and that they are eligible to work in the UK. All our Approved Installers have valid insurance and references.

Most importantly, Danilo has checked the quality of their work and the customer service they provide. Professional fitters are essential to achieve the standard of finish that high quality bathroom products justify. Please ask your C.P. Hart Sales Consultant for more details of our Approved Installers.

A FITTINGCONCLUSION

New displays at Tunbridge Wells

Create your own moodboard at cphart.co.uk

Marsha Verlander – Head of HR There is more to life than work – though we know there has to be quite a lot of the latter! One of the way busy C.P. Harters relax is by challenging unsuspecting suppliers and customers to some sort of ‘friendly’ game. There is certainly a very competitive edge in our company’s DNA…Cricket, Football, Sponsored Runs, Go Karting, Clay Pigeon Shooting…..all have appeared in our recent events’ calendar. If you are tempted to take us on, please throw down the gauntlet in the direction of Paul Rowland. We might even be on for a beer race!

SPORTS CHALLENGE

Recent C.P. Hart vs Chatsworth Cricket Match Danilo Lara