Kitchen Elegance - Rich Pickings

Said to be the world’s fourth most expensive place to live, Sandbanks has been dubbed Britain’s own Monte Carlo. And it’s home to retailer Kitchen Elegance which is growing at a speed of knots.

The deluxe apartments and houses of Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs and Branksome Park combine to create a length of south coast that’s reputed to be the most expensive square acreage in the country. A pretty good location for a mid-upmarket kitchen retailer, then? “Yes, absolutely,” agrees Rob Roselli, owner and director of Poole-based Kitchen Elegance. So much so, in fact, that three years ago, he took over the building next door to double the size of his showroom, and opened a bathroom showroom nearby. And, last year, he opened another showroom, this time to sell living room furniture. Phew! Is there no end to Roselli’s expansion plans?
It seems not. He’s busily working on increasing the square footage of the bathroom showroom,
and on another concept, still under wraps. It’s the reason why his feet are barely touching the ground.
 “We’re incredibly busy,” he says, revealing that he’s been in the showroom since 6am this morning, often works an 11-12 hour day and usually puts in
six days a week. And it’s not just business expansion plans that take up his time. “I look at and comment on every single kitchen design before it is presented to a client, and countersign every order acknowledge­ment,” he says. Which must take some time, given that Kitchen Elegance sold 250 kitchens last year and employs four full-time kitchen designers.
“I don’t need to know the ins and outs, but I do like to meet our customers and to know what’s going on,” he explains.
Personal attention to detail is, says Roselli, one of the reasons Kitchen Elegance has a well-established local reputation. Founded by Roselli, now 50, in 1986, initially as a Leicht-only dealership, he took on Rational about eight years ago. “Rational had things others didn’t have: they were doing book-matched veneers and high-gloss – it’s a very good product, with very good back up,” he says.
More recently, he’s added Underwood, and Metris from PWS. “Now we have Rational for cutting edge design, Leicht as an all-round good product, Underwood as a bespoke option, and Metris for its curved doors,” he explains. “We have to offer a wide range of choice, because our clientele is surprisingly mixed. Yes, we have the very, very wealthy people that Sandbanks is known for, but we also cater for developers, some of whom are building affordable housing.”
It was property developers that first brought Roselli’s nephew, Jason Vickers, into Kitchen Elegance. Now 40, he has worked as a designer at the company for 17 years, initially developing the contract side of the business. Today he works with co-designers Nick Burr, Stewart Zelly and Chris Bundy on all types of projects. “We have a vast array of people who come into the showroom,” he says. “It could be someone with an elegant country house or a cutting edge apartment in a modern development. The majority of our business comes from within a two mile radius, but we do go to London, usually when one of our local clients has a home there.”
So, are there any similarities between the jobs? “One of the key considerations around here is the orientation towards the harbour,” he explains.
 “We try to make the most of the views and the sense of outside-coming-inside in all our designs.”
Spread over a total of 2,800 sq ft on two floors, the showroom houses 16 displays with a distinctly contemporary look. It’s an attractive formula that appears to work. “Between 2007 and 2008, the company’s turnover grew by 33% on the
kitchen side,” says Roselli. But have things been as bright since? “Because of the recession, turnover was down by 20% last year, with no one building on the contract side across the board,” he concedes.
 But things are starting to look up. “Sales since January have been up to 2007 levels,” he says.
Acing that in February and March, group sales were over £1m before VAT. With a promising first quarter behind him, Roselli can’t wait to set to work on those expansion plans. “If we get the planning permission, we’ll start building the very next day,” he laughs.