10 minute read
IDEAL’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY
IDEAL BATHROOMS
TURNS 40!
Ideal Bathrooms celebrated its 40th anniversary last month!
2021 is the year Ideal Bathrooms turn 40! Over the past 40 years, we have continued to grow and provide a best in class service, whilst continually striving to improve in all aspects of the business. We wanted to look back to see how far we have come and share the key milestones we have had with you, as well as hearing from of our fantastic directors who have led the business to where it is today. To celebrate our 40th birthday, we had various activities in the month of July for our customers and staff. Turn to page 12 to read about these activities.
David Kilby, Managing Director
Although I have only been involved with Ideal Bathrooms for the past 8 months, I know that we have built a solid reputation in the marketplace and that our business is well respected by customers and suppliers alike. This is the result of 40 years of hard work and I am very proud to be Managing Director at the time when we achieve this milestone.
Q. What can we expect to see from Ideal Bathrooms in the future?
Well we already have some exciting developments this year, with the new warehouse in Wakefield, a new Transport Management Software system being rolled out and some fabulous new product initiatives, so I am very confident that we will continue to grow and invest in the business. Here’s to the next 40 years!
1981
Ideal Bathrooms was formed by Fowzi and Isaac Baroukh
1984
Ideal Bathrooms moved from a small shop to its first warehouse in Kingston Upon Thames
1989
Ideal Bathrooms opened a new warehouse in Milton Keynes
1994
Ideal Bathrooms opened a warehouse in Wakefield
2000
Ideal Bathrooms moved to Tilbrook, Milton Keynes
2003
Centralised Credit Control, Purchasing Ledger and Call Centre controlled from Milton Keynes
2005
Ideal Bathrooms acquired by Saint-Gobain
2007
Started our own brand Essential Bathrooms
2008
Warehouses relocate from Kingston Upon Thames to Hayes & 4th distribution centre acquired in Glasgow
Kim Kirby-Earnshaw with Ideal’s Diamond Award for Health & Safety
Cultural activities at Race To the Cape in 2018
Kim Kirby-Earnshaw, Operations Director
Since the acquisition by Saint Gobain in 2005 we have been able to invest more in EHS and have achieved results by creating a safer working environment. The business has evolved so much over the last 40 years, meaning that we have been able to adapt to change and remain the market leader.
For our 30th Anniversary, we were able to hold a fantastic event at a monastery in Manchester and we’ve also had great success from the launch of the Race To initiatives, which has given us the opportunity to build and improve the relationships with our customers. Our People, their commitment, dedication and passion for delivering the best they possibly can from all teams is also something I am greatly proud of.
Activities on the beach at Race To Mauritius in 2016
2012
Achieved Millionaire Safety status - Ideal Bathrooms had 1 million hours without any work related incidents
2013
Diamond Award for Health & Safety achieved
2015
Launched our first Race To customer incentive
2016
Acquired 25,000sqft Milton Keynes DC2 site
2017
Launch of our Market Leading Trade website
Performers at Race To The Orient in 2019
2020
David Kilby joined Ideal Bathrooms as Managing Director
2021
Partnered with Virtual Worlds and launched our 40th Anniversary Rewards customer incentive
John Bagshaw was Ideal Bathrooms’ MD in 2009-2019. He is now solely Managing Director for International Decorative Surfaces
The first Race To event in 2015 where customers won a trip to Dubai
Q. Can you tell me how the business has evolved since it was established in 1981?
Operational excellence has been a USP since the business was founded in 1981. The strategic locations and significant investment in our infrastructure has been critical to our success, as well as the investment in digitalisation and ensuring we are the market leader within our sector.
Q. Can you tell us about your career journey with
Ideal Bathrooms?
I joined in 1990 in the newly created team of 2 Sales Co-ordinators and by 1995 I was promoted to Area Sales Manager. After this, I eventually changed to Branch Manager, then Commercial Manager before taking the role of Operations Director in 2008.
Danielle Lillis, Sales and Commercial Director
The Race to incentives are certainly a highlight that stands out to me, particularly in these still difficult times. It feels surreal to think we took hundreds of customers to destinations in the UAE, Mauritius, Thailand and South Africa. On reflection these memories seem even more special and I’m sure our customers feel the same.
Q. Are there any key company achievements which have remained prominent in your mind?
Whilst on the topic of the Race To incentives, winning a B2B marketing award for our Race To campaign was a fantastic achievement for our team.
I also believe that a diverse management team is something to recognise, particularly as the bathroom industry still has a long way to go in attracting more women to the industry. Ideal Bathrooms is a stronger business, with a gender balanced team driving the vision and strategy for the future.
Ideal Bathrooms?
I actually started off as a supplier to Ideal Bathrooms and the then Managing Director Martin Carroll asked me to join Ideal Bathrooms as Commerical Director and the rest is history. It was a fantastic move for me, and I will always be thankful to Martin. I feel that it has helped that I had worked for a manufacturer prior to making the move to distribution as I have been at both ends of the scale and hope that has helped shape how we work to ensure the best results for our branded partners.
Steve Gillespie, Finance Director
Being part of a company with longevity and sustained success over 40 years is something I am proud to be a small part of. Many businesses can have a few good years, but sustained performance is the true mark of a great business.
Q. What can we expect to see from Ideal
Bathrooms in the future?
Ideal Bathrooms has a bright future and is in a great position to continue to lead in the market as the number 1 bathroom distributor, due to our continued longstanding partnerships with leading brands and exciting additions to come. With the great people we have working for Ideal Bathrooms, I can see only further success.
IDEAL BATHROOMS
TURNS 40!
To continue the celebrations of our 40th Birthday, we also gave more opportunities for customers to get involved and win some prizes.
Between Friday 16th July and Friday 30th July we had an exciting promotion running on our website for customers to get involved in. For all our customers that are registered for our trade website, we hid 400 birthday related images around the site for customers to find for the chance to win prosecco (a £10 Amazon voucher for customers in Scotland) or to be entered into a prize draw to win a 55” TV.
Firstly, customers were challenged to find 5 ‘Ruby’ balloons on the website and submit the SKUs they found them on via the claim form, to be entered into a prize draw to win a 55” TV!
Secondly, customers had to find 10 standard birthday cake images on the website, and submit all 10 products via the claim form and prosecco would be on its way to those customers.
In addition to these, for our 40th Anniversary Rewards program registered customers, we also doubled the boards they received, so for every £1,400 they spent with us, they received 2 boards instead of 1, doubling the chances to win prizes.
We hope our customers enjoyed celebrating our 40th birthday with us. Danielle Lillis, Sales and Commercial director says “It’s such a special year for Ideal Bathrooms turning 40, I’m grateful that we were able to include our loyal customers in our exciting birthday celebrations and I hope that we can continue our success for years to come”
Virtual game
We recently partnered with Virtual Worlds to bring the Essential brand onto their platform. Following on from this partnership we worked with Virtual Worlds to launch our very own virtual reality game, offering retailers and merchants a unique experience and the chance to win prizes, to celebrate the partnership and our 40th birthday.
Throughout July, entrants had 60 seconds to ‘sling shot’ as many Ideal Bathrooms balls into various items in an Essential bathroom. The top 3 scores had a chance of winning a price.
The top 3 on the leaderboard* of our virtual reality game.
*Scores correct at time of print. SCORES:
1. LEE - 553 (THAMES VALLEY PLUMBING SUPPLIES) 2. JACK - 544 (THAMES VALLEY PLUMBING SUPPLIES) 3. JACK - 538 (BLISS BATHROOMS)
Internal celebrations
As part of our 40th Birthday celebrations, we ran various activities throughout the first two weeks of July for all staff across all depots to enjoy. Some of the activities included:
40,000 step challenge
All staff were challenged to walk 40,000 steps per week (between Monday-Friday) to win a pack of prosecco to enjoy at the weekend. All staff had to do was post their step count onto Totem on the Friday to prove they made 40,000 steps that week!
Treasure hunt
With a checklist of 40 items to find whilst out and about, staff had to find as many items as possible throughout the 2 week period. Items included a Santander bike, solar panels & a double decker bus. The items were grouped into 5 groups, group 1 being the easiest items to find and group 5 being the most difficult. The top 3 people with the highest amount of items found by Friday 16th July won a £25 Amazon voucher!
Hayleigh Maxey with a Starship delivery robot in MK Sian Harding found not 1, but 2 Santander bikes!
80s theme fancy dress
Ideal Bathrooms was established in 1981, so to celebrate our 40th birthday the business will be having an 80’s theme fancy dress day. Here’s a blast from the past photo of our last 80s day!
Ideal Bathrooms 80s fancy dress day in 2015
Ideal Bathrooms Bake Off
Who doesn’t love cake to celebrate a birthday? We will be challenging the staff at Ideal Bathrooms to bake a birthday cake for our 40th Birthday. Staff will vote for their favourite entry via our new Totem app so every depot can get involved! Keep an eye out in our next edition to see what delicious creations our staff create!
Our new internal engagement app!
At Ideal Bathrooms we’re always looking at new ways to improve what we do and how we communicate internally to our hardworking staff is no different. Embracing digital technology is one of our core values and in line with this we have recently invested in Totem, a smart phone app which enables us to communicate to all staff in all areas of the business, across the whole of the UK. Our new Totem App allows us to communicate news, key business announcements and brand updates, while providing a simple to use platform to bring everyone together in a more informal social environment. Whether it’s a driver in Glasgow, a member of our sales office in Milton Keynes or Warehouse staff in Wakefield, everyone can be in the know! The response from Ideal Bathrooms employees has been extremely positive and we hope that Totem will help to streamline our business and boost collaboration across departments and depots improving our internal performance, allowing us to continue to give the best level of service possible to our customers.
