Increased distribution and new office.
KitchenAid has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the market leaders in the local small appliance industry.
The US-based appliance company known for its signature range of mixers overtook Nutribullet in May as the market leading brand in the food preparation category. The brand is not just growing in mixers, but all food preparation categories as it expands its range of top end appliances. It is also the fastest growing brand in kettles and toasters year to date.
KitchenAid general manager, Kay Oswald, told Appliance Retailer that the key to this growth has been maintaining a premium position and delivering on consumer needs as well as the important expansion of distribution to The Good Guys, Harvey Norman and Bing Lee earlier this year.
“We began expanding our distribution at the end of March. We have over 500 shopfronts in Australia across department stores and independents, but KitchenAid is still somewhat of a best kept secret in this country. We realised that to emulate our success in North America and Europe that we had to spread our wings. Premium electrical retail chains such as The Good Guys, Harvey Norman and Bing Lee also attract high end and affluent customers shopping for aspirational brands like KitchenAid in all categories.
“Our aspiration is that we want to own the kitchen, not just the benchtop, and that stands above everything. Our mixer is the most renowned and iconic product in our portfolio and it is the gateway to other benchtop appliances and kitchenware.”
Oswald said that with the growth in distribution, the growth in the size of the organisation has followed with several new staff appointed.
“We needed to expand our organisational capabilities and as a result we have doubled the size of our sales organisation and brought in additional visual merchandisers and trainers to call on our retail partners to demonstrate the products and also to deliver a high level of service,” he said.
“My aspiration is to have Australia’s best sales and marketing organisation to deliver superior value to our partners and do justice to our expanding range. We will also continue to invest in our technical and IT back end processes to support these staff and the business. As a result, we will be launching a new client portal where every trade partner can track the status of the orders at a convenient time that suits our retail partners, and not just during business hours.
KitchenAid has also opened up its first Sydney office in Alexandria this week alongside other appliance companies also calling the area home including Breville, Sunbeam and Dyson.
“Opening up a second office in Alexandria is ideal as it is Sydney’s food hub. Sydney is also where our agencies and media partners are based. It helps us to attract and retain high quality talent with strong industry experience and backgrounds in food to help us build something great,” Oswald said.
The new Sydney office will house around 12 staff members, while the remainder of the business continues to operate from the Newcastle office established by former distributor Peter McInnes prior to Whirlpool creating a local subsidiary in January 2015.