Like many kitchen retailers, Kitchen Culture Cambridgeshire, which was set up in July 2016 by experienced kitchen designer Simon Nairn, has dabbled in bathrooms over the years.
However, as the company’s name would suggest, bathrooms haven’t traditionally been a big focus. “The bathroom jobs we did always came from customers who contacted us and said ‘you did our kitchen, would you mind doing our bathroom, too?’, or ‘while you’re doing our kitchen, could you do our en suite as well?’” Simon says. “The simple answer has always been yes, but we’d never really put the time, effort or resources into bathrooms.”
One of the challenges Simon faced was not having anything tangible to give or show customers looking for a new bathroom. As a longstanding Crown Imperial Elite retailer and Waterline customer, Kitchen Culture Cambridgeshire has a selection of beautiful modern and traditional kitchens, bedrooms and office solutions on display at its St Neots showroom, but no bathrooms. “We almost didn’t want to say we could do bathrooms because it was a bit of a logistical challenge,” Simon admits.
However, Kitchen Culture Cambridgeshire started receiving more and more requests for bathrooms. “Customers like us were saying to Waterline that we really needed a dedicated bathroom offering,” Simon continues.
Launched in August 2024, Waterline’s bathroom collection, which has been created in collaboration with industry experts, provides a complete offering, consisting of everything from furniture, brassware and baths to sanitaryware, shower enclosures and flushing systems. Called the Little Blue Bathroom Collection, it is showcased in a beautiful 52-page, full-colour brochure.
The timing couldn’t have been better for Kitchen Culture Cambridgeshire. “It gave us the push to introduce a more formal bathroom offering,” says Simon.
“Waterline’s collection covers the majority of standard, everyday family homes and that’s a big % of the market. There are so many things out there in the market and it is hard for people to know what they want. But all the boxes are ticked by what’s in the brochure. And it's well priced and easy to understand from a pricing perspective,” he says.
By early 2025, Kitchen Culture Cambridgeshire had already completed four bathrooms and had another four booked in. So how difficult has Simon found the move into bathrooms? “I’m a kitchen designer by trade,” he says. “I can design a bathroom, but I don’t know everything there is to know about bathrooms in the same way that I do with kitchens.
“Our regional sales manager at Waterline is really experienced with kitchens and bathrooms and she’s a really good soundboard for me. Sometimes she’ll say, ‘have you thought about this?’ or ‘how about trying that’, and it really helps to have that soundboard. I can only speak for our RSM, but she’s so invested in our business and seeing us succeed.
“Obviously she wants the product she’s selling to succeed too, but that’s only going to work by her having that vested interest and being that point of contact if something does happen or go wrong.”
Availability is another huge plus point. “We’re not having stock issues or delays or challenges where we’ve removed a bathroom and are waiting for something to turn up. That sort of stuff has happened with other suppliers and distribution points, so this has helped hugely. We know that if it’s on a lorry from Waterline it’s controlled.”
Simon likes that there are very clearly defined traditional and contemporary ranges within Waterline’s bathroom portfolio and, most importantly, his customers are happy and the feedback he’s had from his installation team has been really positive.
For now, Kitchen Culture Cambridgeshire is relying on Waterline’s brochure to sell bathrooms and hasn’t put any bathroom displays in the showroom. But Simon says that may well happen down the line. “It’s a tricky one as we’d have to consider rethinking our overall strategy and our business name or having two separate businesses as we are predominantly known as a kitchen company and I don’t want that to change. But the bathroom avenue seems to be growing really, really quickly.”
For more information and to explore the full range of Waterline products, visit www.waterline.co.uk or call 03330 149 149.
