A “large and fragmented” market.
Shriro surprised several people in the industry this week with the announcement that it has signed a deal with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to develop barbeque technology under the Everdure brand. CEO Mike Westrup has revealed why Heston Blumenthal and charcoal will ignite the global barbeque market.
“Unlike the in-home or indoor cooking segment that is dominated by several brands as well as a lot of capable businesses such as Whirlpool, Miele and Bosch Siemens, the barbeque market is very fragmented and very large,” Westrup told Appliance Retailer.
“There are two platforms here – we see there is an opportunity with a lot lower barriers to entry than within the indoor cooking segment. Just as importantly, we are taking a more international view than just Australia and New Zealand. And why would we do that? Australia and New Zealand are nice markets and we do well in them – but the northern hemisphere and other parts of the southern hemisphere are much larger and this allows us to expand the business through diversification and this also de-risks the business,” he said.
Heston Blumenthal.
Specifically, Westrup believes there is an opportunity within the charcoal category of the barbeque market.
“Charcoal is quite amazing. The biggest problem with charcoal products has been ignition. With a lot of consumers using charcoal, they want to have a barbeque and when the wind was blowing they couldn’t get it lit. We have developed a quick-lighting system which will have you cooking with charcoal within seven minutes.”
Westrup confirmed that the new range of both charcoal and gas Everdure by Heston Blumenthal barbeques will be released at the Spoga outdoor trade fair in Cologne in September and will then be available in Australia.
“We are working on a lot of other new products that complement what is happening within the commercial kitchen. We believe that over the years appliances have been successful when they have replicated a commercial application.
“A lot of the restaurants in New York and London are using flame off charcoal and as consumers experience this in restaurants they will want to replicate this at home. When it comes to compliance and regulatory authorities, we believe this is far easier to perform this type of cooking outside of the house.”