Tilecast News w/e June 28 2024

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Tilecast news, features and analysis brought to. [00:00:04] Speaker B: You by diary Vitaladict. Hi, tile addicts. Welcome to another edition of Newscast from Tilecast by Dario the Tile Addict. As usual, we have Joe Simpson with us telling us about what's been going on this week, but I think Joe's. What's been going on this week? You've been up at the installer show in Birmingham. Joe, tell us a bit about the show. First of all, what's it about? Who goes why? [00:00:43] Speaker C: Ok. Yeah, well, this is a new venture for the UK tile industry. Installer show started in the heating and ventilation industry and has sort of migrated through kitchen design and wants to carry on its progression by embracing the worktop and tile industry, which was when they contacted Diary of a tile addict to help steer it in its new direction and also to provide some content. [00:01:09] Speaker B: So you were putting together a particular area called surface area and you were a content partner for that. So what was that about? [00:01:17] Speaker C: If this was a relatively short run up to the show and the idea was that I would use my knowledge of the industry and contacts within it to curate a small area that showed the innovation in the tile industry and also the breadth and complexity of it. So we had everything from small format decorated tiles right through to large porcelain slabs, worktops and everything in between. I deliberately chose very well known brands like Pamessa and less known brands. I chose a mixture of italian, Spanish, and we also had some turkish plus rack from the UAE. And really what I wanted to do was show that the innovation continues to highlight a few things that are really very unusual and entice people into our little part of the industry, as well as letting the tile industry know that the installer show is serious about this market sector going forward. [00:02:16] Speaker B: So who were the visitors to the show and what was their reaction? [00:02:20] Speaker C: Right. Well, the visitors are largely people who use tools, so we are talking about contractors, installers, fitters, although there is a growing audience of specifiers and the people that commission them. So, you know, house builders, developers. But the core is contractors, hence the name installer show. But. But the great thing about it is it's a very lively and dynamic show. It has a good core audience and my feeling is that we can easily extend that into the tile sector and the worktop fabricators, and they will benefit from having a dynamic partner show, plus they'll have very specific content for our market. [00:02:59] Speaker B: So that's the UK. We're very specifically talking about the UK. [00:03:03] Speaker C: We are talking about. We are talking about the UK market. Inevitably, the exhibitors are very international. But, yes, it's a UK specific show, but we need a UK specific show. It's very, very difficult to get a standalone tile show of any breadth and scale going in the UK. But I think if there's other reasons for retailers, specifiers, fixers to go to this show, then the NEC is the place to have it. And this is a really great base to build on. [00:03:31] Speaker B: So tell us who you selected and why you selected them. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Okay, well, as I say, I went for a very broad spread. So if we start at the largest, the worktop one, we had four partners there. So, Sapienstone, the italian worktop brand of the Iris group, we had coverlam, the spanish brand of Graspana. We had museum surfaces, another spanish brand, part of the Peronda group, and we had Neolithe. The great thing about it was, well, it's partly because I chose things, existing installations that they already had, but we had a real range of different surfaces, so we had wood effect worktops, we had stone effect worktops, and, of course, marbles, but they weren't all the same marbles. We had satin, matte and polish, and we had ones with clear texture and ones without texture. What I really wanted to highlight was the very latest in both pressing technology, the continua plus kind of systems and their rivals plus what you can do with digital decorations, sinking inks, latest polishing techniques and all that kind of thing. I think it worked really well. Perhaps the most. One of the most innovative things there was Castle Grande Padana's new thermoform shower base, and that really got a lot of attention. So, basically, this is a large six mil sheet that's heated and formed to create the fall. Post production, we had a couple of golf balls to show how this worked. That was really good. [00:04:53] Speaker B: And am I right that. That's really hard to see, because I seem to remember a story you telling me about nobody believed that there was a fall on it. [00:05:00] Speaker C: No, it is true. It looks good if you look at it from above. And because the one that they demonstrated had quite a figured stone surface, you can't read the fall. And it is. It's a very subtle fall. But the great thing is you can have a totally monolithic shower design and still have good drainage. So it's kind of the best of all possible worlds. [00:05:21] Speaker B: So that's five. You had about 20 odd years. Yeah. [00:05:23] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, rack ceramics, one of the world's giants, they were showing their thermoluminescent tiles. Luce. We had a little light box to show how the light can shine through these. I had seen them at their showroom in Clerkenwell, where they have three large, three by one metre sheets, side by side, all backlit. If you're a hotel or a bar designer, this is surely your ultimate dream. Surface wall applications only because this is fired at a lower temperature than conventional porcelain. But the impressive thing about it is just how white the body is, and it looks superb. That stops people in their tracks. Other innovations there we had the new water based digital glaze tiles from Realonda, which were the winners of this year's Alpha d'Oro prize. I mean, that's the first time they've been seen in the UK, so that was spectacular. And then we had some other things which pertain to the other key issues in the market. So we. Sustainability. Massive at the moment. We had the new mass product from Aleucid. And why is this important? Well, rather than using an atomizer, this uses up to 98.5% industrial waste to form the body. And so it is taking essentially the waste product of the spanish ceramic industry and creating something new with it. I like this because it was largely a doctor, Alastair Bremner, a scottish academic, who's been pioneering this idea, and it's been done in Spain. It's a really good idea of collaboration. And it was being shown at our show by Parkside, the contract division of Tops. So that was two great brands together. And talking of great brands, we had fired Earth, who were showing their new Nina Campbell floor tiles, the recipient of this year's TTA Floor tile of the year award. Lovely to see that. I think this is also a key thing for the tile industry, because fart Earth aren't a manufacturer, but they have these products made specifically for them, so they're unique to them. And I think this is the way retelling is going to go in the future. They're going to see a lot more bespoke products made specifically for certain manufacturers. So they have a unique look. They can fill in gaps in their portfolio. So that's cool. So what else do we have there? We had some. I tried to get a wood effect tile, a sepa degree tile, because that's huge at the moment. And we also had some. The things, I mean, probably it got the. Almost the best result of anything, a kind of composite material that you don't know whether it's a resin, it's a concrete, and it's got to have a texture on it, like a fabric that was from Arcana. But we had Nanda tiles who were doing the small format, achingly beautiful lace tiles. We had dune another one showing something unusual. They had PVD tiles there. [00:08:05] Speaker B: PVD. [00:08:06] Speaker C: Right. That's physical vapor deposition. [00:08:09] Speaker B: Okay, tell me about this. [00:08:10] Speaker C: Well, this was, if there was such a thing for the show. This was our bling. This is the application after firing of the metallics and other golds and other metallic finishes. Really, really beautiful. And they had everything from very small format up to large satin gold effect tiles. They were also turning heads. And then we had, I suppose, you know, you could say at the other end of the spectrum, Vitra, the turkish giant, was showing some really good specification tiles. So 30 odd Rowell colored tiles, 15 different formats that are perfectly modular, so you can align the grout lines exactly. Plus they had their small pieces that you can use to create internal, external corners, bull noses, whatever you want. So that was. It was really interesting to show something that was, if you like, kind of old school, but also old school at the moment is very much in vogue. So there are lots and more people looking at these kind of complete ceramic cladding systems for bar counters or for restaurants or whatever it may be. So really good to do that. But if I had to say one thing about all of this, what really surprised me when I had this idea, it was that I would be there as a sort of curator compare, surrounded by all these beautiful tiles, and that would be it. I was amazed by how many of these brands I'd invited chose to fly over and support me. I mean, they knew it wasn't going to be their audience this year, that this was a sort of stepping stone, but they still chose to come in large numbers and support, well, me, the industry, the show, their own brands. It was quite humbling. [00:09:51] Speaker B: So the whole thing was quite successful. You obviously had a good response to it, I gather. [00:09:55] Speaker C: Yes. I mean, I was expecting we would get a lot of interest. I was frankly quite surprised by just how much genuine inquiries we had. But we also. It was nice to interact with a slightly different industry. And, you know, it gave me a lot of confidence that we can get this as a key part of the installer show. I mean, we met several trade associations when we were there, talked them through the concept, because we want everybody on side with this. We're not, it's not, this is not just an installer show initiative. We want this to be everybody in the tile and worktop industry to get behind this. So fabricators, installers, distributors, we want the underlayments, the adhesive people, the tooling people. We had one of the. I mean, one of the strangest interactions I've ever had with somebody who'd been walking around looking at, paying a lot of interest, and then just said, can I ask you a question? And I said, yes, of course. And they said, should we exhibiting here? You know, so it was pretty direct. I said, yes. And that was it. They went off and booked a stand for next year. Oh, the power, you know, which is fantastic. And hopefully more and more people will see that this is going to be a show for them. I really should put a plug in for lyrical group or lyrical communications and the 19 group who put this show together. But they do appear to have a very collaborative mindset. Talking to Johnny Gray, who was the renowned kitchen designer who was sharing a space next to us. He's had longer dealings than I had. And this guy is a serious design academic. He was full of praise for how much they take his ideas on board, how much they listen to what he says. And it was also great. He came and got the full tour of our stand and it's. It's nice when you see a renowned designer. He immediately got what we were trying to do. And then right at the end of the show, he came up and asked for information on four of the products because he could see how he could use them in his own projects going forward. And that's what you wanted to create. I'd also like to have a quick word to Jane Addis, who those of you in the UK Thailand stream may know from BCT or original style, who chose to spend the week helping me curate that. It's very nice to have some company, somebody else who gets the tile industry, who comes from a design background. And I think we both enjoyed, a. Working together b meeting a lot of people and talking about tiles and enthusing people about tiles. It worked really well. The only thing that didn't work well was getting the stuff through customs. And now my. I'm absolutely full of admiration for people who have to do this week in, week out. It was a complete pain. But apart from that, it was. It was really good. It was a great experience. Very positive. I think we've got a lot to build on. And I'll just say one other thing. If all the products we had there, I will be writing about putting up a brief introduction and a site where you can find further information on diary of a tile addict. Because I think, a, I want to support these people who've supported me, but also there were some really interesting products there. I mean, it's only 16 companies out of the vast global tile industry. But it was a really good 16 companies. There was lots of. Lots of interesting, both visual and technical qualities there. We had bio self cleaning tile. It was, you know, really good. So I will put. Be putting them up over the next couple of weeks and they'll all be up there. One of the ones I'll be putting up was NATO Ser, which unfortunately, some kind of, because of a logistical problem, their samples ended up in New York rather than at the show. Which is a real shame because I was looking forward to explaining some of the beauties of extruded tiles and reactive glazes and that sort of thing. [00:13:27] Speaker B: Well, I'll have to do that in. [00:13:28] Speaker C: The written word, so I'm going to do it in the written word. [00:13:31] Speaker B: Yeah, you sound. I mean, I know you've been talking all week, so I think your voice has been going a little bit. Just next year, then doing it again next year, right? [00:13:40] Speaker C: Well, yes. I mean, we've still got to sit down and have a proper debef with lyrical communications. But I think their feedback was very positive. The chats we had with trade associations were positive. I think everyone now gets it that we're. What we're trying to do and why it will work. What I now need to do is really think about the educational content. We need to cover the kind of health and safety issues, the installation issues, the training issues that are vital to this industry. And we need to get the other key partners, the tooling people, the adhesive suppliers and manufacturers, the underlayments involved. We need to reach out to distributors, retailers, installers, fixers, contractors and specifiers and make them realize that this is a great day to the diary. If I could just say one other thing about the show, which has got absolutely nothing to do with tiling, but was very interesting, was how many people you saw with smiling faces. And that was because there were loads of events going on there. Some of them I've never seen before and I probably shouldn't talk about on, because they were slightly risky. Okay, I will do. I don't know quite whether you're allowed to use the word turd on the radio, but there was. There was a bathroom display. Their game was they had a huge sack of plastic turds. And it was. How many turds could you throw into the WC at the other side of the stand in a minute? Which the first time I saw it, I thought, this is barking. And then after that, just the image sat with me of this guy in a suit who was very earnestly concentrating on throwing a plastic turd 20ft into a WC. But, you know, that is the kind of thing that puts a smile on your face and it makes you more receptive to the rest of it. And I should think one in every three stands had something going on. There was table football, there was all sorts of stuff. It was a full, fun fair. And then, if you consider it was taking place on the hottest day of the year so far, and there was an England game that day, the fact that there was such a heavy footfall bears real testament to how much people enjoy going to the show and how much more they're going to enjoy it when there's going to be a special hall just full of tiles and worktops. I mean, wow, come on. And, you know, cancel your challenge is on. [00:15:57] Speaker B: What entertainment do you do? I mean, you know, you can tile the wall fastest, maybe. [00:16:02] Speaker C: Well, you know, don't joke about that. We are already, you know, ideas were being suggested. We might run some of the existing competitions there. We could do master classes. There's so many things you can do over serious things, but with a entertaining aspect. I'm really excited about it because we could do with a proper show that really embraces the trades. There are lots of shows that are very good at targeting architects and interior designers. There's some that are good for self builders, some just for the DIY market, but there really isn't in our industry anything beyond the tiling show that really addresses the tradesmen. And we need something with real scale which can provide the educational content as well as a big mix of exhibitors. And this, to me, is going to be that show going forward. [00:16:55] Speaker B: Well, we look forward to hearing, you know, how that develops and what the ideas are for next year. And I think what we'll call a day there, because there hasn't been much other news this week. I guess we're still in the run up to the election. So next week, who knows? There's much news to talk about, but there'll be something happening in the news world for tiles. [00:17:14] Speaker C: Well, let's hope so. I mean, I didn't just decide to concentrate on that this week because I'm enthused about it and I'd spent my week there. I did go trawl through all my normal news sources and it appears that not a lot happened in the tarnishery this week. Maybe when this goes out, people will realize that we've missed some stories and sent them through to us. And you're very welcome to. You can email them to [email protected]. tile ukol.com and we'll pick up on them and follow them up from there. But there just doesn't appear to be much happening at the moment. I think there's a lot of still people sitting on their hands waiting to see what's happening in the UK election, you know, and properly what's going to happen in the american election and other elections that you know, are available. [00:17:57] Speaker B: And meanwhile, this is still probably the most important half hour of your week to make sure that you don't miss anything that's been going on in the world of tiles. So do tune in again next week. Make sure you hit the subscribe or the like button and make sure you know you're listening to us every week. [00:18:13] Speaker C: And a final reminder, if you want to read more about these products, do log on to diary of a tile addict because I'll be putting them up over the next couple of weeks. [00:18:22] Speaker B: That's brilliant. Okay, great, jo, we'll see you next week. [00:18:24] Speaker C: Bye. Now. [00:18:25] Speaker A: You've been listening to tilecast, produced by Diary of a tile addict. To ensure you don't miss any future episodes, don't forget to follow us. You can also find show notes and receive updates on news feeds, articles, podcasts, and videos direct to your inbox by subscribing to the diaryofataleddict.com website. Get the inside track a diary of a tile addict.