Delabie, the water control and sanitaryware specialist, has opened a new showroom at its UK headquarters in Wallingford where it can showcase its range of taps, sinks, shower, other sanitaryware and accessories to its customers.
The impressive facility was created via ‘the re-purposing’ of 150 m2 of former first floor office space, and will also be used as a training centre. The showroom provides an attractive, ‘all-under-one-roof’ exhibition space for the Group’s core product ranges of water controls, sanitaryware, and accessories for public and commercial washrooms. Individual product groups are shown in typical installation situations, or on ‘theme-based’ presentation walls, demonstrating a cross-section of the Group’s ‘3000+’ ‘innovative product solutions’ for non-domestic settings. The showroom is designed so that visitors ‘gain an insight into the design, functionality, quality, expertise, and brand identity’ that the Group says contributing to its success in public locations such as schools, hospitals, offices, hotels, and sports facilities. Architects for the facility were Rouen-based Piece Unik, and the installers, RCI Contracts.
Speaking at the launch, UK sales director, Ben Boyce, said the showroom represented ‘a significant investment’ in the UK market for the Delabie Group, which was founded in 1928, by Georges Delabie, a sanitaryware wholesale merchant in Paris, who acquired a foundry in Friville in the Somme, originally established in 1863. There he began producing mainly taps and floor traps for bathrooms and kitchens. Toady his three grandchildren, Jean-Claude, Gérard, and Luc, are the business’s primary directors.
“For us,” Ben Boyce said, “one of the big benefits of having owners that run the business is that they understand the market. Our CEO, Luc Delabie, is, for instance, the product range director for Healthcare. The directors all have really close involvement both in the products we manufacture, and the business side.” Delabie was also unusual, he explained, in being one of the few large water control and sanitaryware manufacturers to focus exclusively on the ‘non-domestic’ market.
One of Delabie’s latest innovations is its Tempomatic Dual Control direct flush valve – which has a user-activated ‘conventional’ push-button flush, and an automatic sensor that detects a user’s presence and flushes the valve automatically if the individual forgets. An ‘intelligent rinsing system’ identifies the duration of use and flushes accordingly. The three programme options include an ‘ecological setting’ with a reduced flush length equating to a lower flush volume. Delabie added: “Electronic flush systems have the additional benefit of requiring no manual contact, so the toilet is accessible to any user, regardless of age or level of independence. An automatic duty flush can also be programmed to flush the pipework every 12 or 24 hours when not in use.”
