Interview: Blanco UK MD Neal Jones – Our new products blend form and function

As Blanco UK unveils new product launches to celebrate its centenary, MD Neal Jones talks to Amelia Thorpe about personalisation, design and opportunities for retailers to upsell.

In the centenary year of the company founded in Germany in 1925 by Heinrich Blanc, sink and tap specialist Blanco is launching a host of new products this autumn. "We are celebrating the success of the business over this enduring time, and not just by looking back," says UK MD Neal Jones. "We are also looking to the future by bringing new products to the market."

Describing itself as the ‘kitchen water place specialist’, Blanco has repositioned itself from a component manufacturer to a comprehensive system provider, delivering a Group turnover of €383million in the 2024 financial year. Blanco Group CEO Frank Gfrörer said in April: "We have made it our mission to create added value for the kitchen water place with more convenience, more attractive design and exceptional quality standards." It all comes together under the modular Blanco Unit hub solution, which is a combination of sink, tap, accessory and under-sink organisation and waste bin system, designed to streamline the sink area and make it more enjoyable to use.

Colour-harmonised Blanco Units with colour-co-ordinated component sets fit this strategy. "The consumer gets a beautiful design aesthetic and the best in functionality – that magical combination of form and function," says Jones. Now Blanco is launching a new tap range, Luneoo. "It is very striking in design, not just a new variant of a tap, but something much more avantgarde and designed to be a statement piece," he notes. It will be available in 5 finishes from its launch this month, including a new finish called Satin Platinum which will also be available across other tap families this autumn.

Luneoo will launch with its own new design of oval-shaped sink, Oovalon, available with co-ordinated accessories. The sink is launched in Blanco’s new material, Velgranit, a stone composite presented as an advanced recipe of its proprietary material Silgranit. "Velgranit has an enhanced, velvety touch, with physical properties that are even more hardwearing and durable than Silgranit, and which make it possible to have more finessed sink designs, such as virtually zero radii curves," he says.

This autumn also sees the launch of 2 additional tap shapes (each in 5 finishes) for Blanco Choice, its 6-in-1 drinks system, which delivers boiling, chilled, filtered and sparkling water, as well as ‘regular’ hot and cold, from one spout. "Currently, we have an Icona semi-professional style tap and we will launch L and C shape families to Icona too," explains Jones.

After years of development to get the right drink system that included sparkling water, Choice was launched in 2023, and Jones says it is now the fastest growing part of the product portfolio – and points to its USP. "There is a very significant ability to personalise the water to the way you like it," he says. The temperature can be varied from 65^oC to 100^oC to suit the type of hot drink being made, the amount of fizz adjusted in sparkling water, and the level of chill adjusted in cool water, while different water filters are available to suit local water hardness.

Focused almost entirely on the kitchen retailer market (distinct from the online replacement sector), Blanco offers more than 1,000 different products. "We are the market leader in the kitchen water place, because nobody else is offering the same comprehensive selection of integrated and co-ordinated products as us," notes Jones. And to support its approach, Blanco will spend around £1million per year on predominantly consumer-based advertising. The strategy is not just an opportunity to upsell for kitchen retailers, he suggests, but also to drive better design. "We use the kitchen water place for 60% of the time that we’re in the kitchen, so it’s by far the place we interact with the most," he says. "If you achieve the best you can in that area, it will have a knock-on effect on the overall appreciation of the kitchen."