Business
Recognition for bathroom specialists
Gemma Hewick, from Newbury-based bathroom furniture specialist Ripples, has landed a major award at the bathroom and kitchen industry’s prestigious kbbreview Industry Awards 2008.
The coveted Designer Award for Bathrooms (for projects that cost up to £15,000), sponsored by Grohe UK, was awarded to Gemma, and collected by Richard Garnett on her behalf, at an awards ceremony recently at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. Following rigorous scrutiny, including a grilling from a judging panel including the world renowned fashion designer Ben de Lisi and kitchen guru Mark Wilkinson, Gemma successfully beat off fierce competition from hundreds of entrants across the UK.
As well as design experts, the awards are judged by a panel of distinguished industry figures and, now in their 14th year, are the nation’s established platform for showcasing talent in interior design, product innovation and the best in customer service. The 17 winners, the cream of designers and retailers, were announced at the awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Jason Manford, before an audience of over 1,000 key industry retailers, manufacturers and designers.
Andrew Davies, chair of the 10-strong independent judging panel and editor of leading industry magazine, kbbreview, commented: “The kbbreview Industry Awards really provide the highlight of the year for us. Regarded as the Oscars of the bathroom and kitchen industry, these awards honour the exceptional quality that’s out there. There were some fantastic entries this year and it’s great to be able to pay tribute to designers that make dreams come true.”
Ripples said: “We are absolutely delighted that Gemma has won this most prestigious award. Her design was innovative, creative and the client loved the finished result. One of the things that we pride ourselves on at Ripples is having the best designers in the business and we are delighted that this national award recognises this.”
Judges said: “This is a really nice use of material and Gemma has really thought about the space – it feels uncluttered which is clever in such an awkward room. She has really met the brief very well and the curved wall had an amazing effect.”
The kbbreview Industry Awards, organised for the third time by kbbreview, reward design and business excellence in the bathroom and kitchen industry and are open to all retailers, interior designers and architects working in the bathroom and kitchen field. The award categories for 2008, most of which cover kitchen and bathrooms separately, included Master Retailer Award, Showroom Award, Designer Awards – for projects costing up to and over 15k and 25k, Young Designer Award, Designer Award for Accessible Design and, new for 2008, Environmental Product Award.
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