Iron awe

In the battle for the higher ground between the old guard solid range cookers and their contemporary young pretenders, we look at how the old brigade are protecting their ground by taking rearguard action and borrowing 21st century attributes

How do you define a range cooker? Should it be the archetypal battleship of the kitchen with beauty and muscle and all sorts of wonderful cavities, knobs and controls? As the stately king of kitchen appliances, it surely has an obligation to knock our socks off and make us utter the ‘wow’ word. Space issues? Who cares when something looks that great?

However, being realistic, needs must when the competitive market drives – and every customer counts. Hence, the traditional range cooker has had to evolve to encompass new design concepts, new features and, many would say, an alarmingly liberal re-classification. Any previous delusions of grandeur have been cut down to size by the arrival of diminutive versions, some of which barely stand out from the crowd – imagine Mahler being around today and hearing a three-minute rap version of his beloved Symphony Number Five.

Style-wise, the range’s country kitchen image has been hijacked by contemporary twists, while technological features such as incorporated wok burners, induction hobs, multifunction ovens and pyrolytic cleaning have revamped its artillery. 

Mahler has morphed – if not into Dizzee Rascal, at least into Dizzy Gillespie – and who can say that this more freewheeling approach hasn’t worked?

Certainly, this transformation has jolted what was a somewhat staid and static sector – range cookers now take a fifth share of the overall cooking market. Holly Sleight, marketing manager of Rangemaster and Falcon, explains why manufacturers needed to be proactive in developing their product portfolio: 

“With the evolution of trends and the popularity of contemporary styling in the home, it is only natural that consumers look to appliances to satisfy their style tastes. Range cookers are no different, and with the growing trend for sleeker interiors, range cooker makers, including ourselves, have intro­duced more contemporary styles to their collections.”

An essential evolution, perhaps, as consumer perception is that built-in cookers offer a more practical option. Joan Fraser, product development and training manager with Smeg, says: “While the range cooker market is slightly up in terms of volume, its biggest threat is built-in products as consumers look for total cooking solutions that meet their varied and demanding lifestyles. 

Built-in ovens are also perceived to be cheaper to run, though manufacturers are ever improving the energy efficiency of range cookers.”

But Rangemaster and Falcon’s Sleight believes there are many incentives for the serious cook to select a range cooker over a built-in: “The cooking capacity of a range cooker offers keen chefs so much more flexibility and we always develop technology that can be transferred easily from a traditional range to a contemporary one. Any of the features found on these models, such as the 5kW wok burner or the induction hob, will be attractive to this market.”

Any feelings that range cookers trail behind built-in products in the high-tech stakes is also disputed by De Dietrich’s sales and marketing director, Richard Walker: “The contemporary range cooker includes a wealth of features and benefits that serious cooks should be aware of. The most popular types are dual-fuel options that feature a range of gas burners on the hob together with one or two electric multifunction ovens – with similar functions to those found in contemporary built-in ovens.”

So is it a case of ‘the king is dead, long live the king’? The flexibility of contemporary feature-packed models increasingly attracts what Craig Davies, md of the Westye Group, calls: “a nation of budding Heston Blumenthals who are more aware of their carbon footprint and who are looking for an appliance that can offer the whole package”. 

For traditionalists, however, “the range cooker is a design classic and remains one of the most desirable cooker styles in the UK,” says Henneke Duistermaat, director of marketing at Britannia. Most importantly, she adds: “Style-conscious foodies spend well over £100m a year on these appliances.”

So how should we define the range cooker? ‘Get with the programme’ might be a neat way of summing up the feelings of Baumatic’s marketing manager, Rita Balestrazzi, who tells ek&bbusiness: “If you want to be pedantic, maybe the industry ought to have come up with a name that clearly separates contemporary range cookers from the traditional enamelled stoves that provide hot water and central heating as well as ovens and hot plates.

“But life has changed. The majority of consumers look at these traditional models as somehow out of kilter with modern life. The fact is that range cookers have evolved to encompass stoves that are – in appearance – either like traditional ranges or semi-professional cooking centres, but which offer all the benefits of the oven industry’s latest technology. Like it or not, this is how the terminology has developed and I don’t see the point in upsetting the applecart.”

However, Mark Bristow, md of Coolectric, the UK importer of ultra premium brand Viking, believes that a definitive line in the sand needs to be drawn: “The mass market is overcrowded with ‘me too’ products that lack technical benefits. However, there are essential elements that define range cookers and distinguish them from other appliances.

“A range cooker must be freestanding, with high-density insulation that allows furniture to be built up to it. As with furniture, the cooker should be available in a choice of modular sizes to make kitchen planning easier for the designer. A range cooker is self-contained, combining the oven with a variety of cooktop arrangements that together offer greater capacity than integrated appliances.

“Top-end models offer semi-professional facilities, a large working space and features that take range cooking to another level. For example, they have multifunction double ovens that offer both pyrolytic cleaning and burners with a wide range of power outputs to allow true versatility at the cooktop.

“The sheer capacity of a range cooker has huge appeal for serious cooks for whom home entertaining is part of their lifestyle. At the same time, the flexibility to use just one oven or the hob when cooking for two is also a selling point.”

Whether classic or contemporary, Graham Gleave, national sales manager at ATAG, believes that:“range cookers hold unique appeal. They are not only cooking appliances that look the part, but they also match the needs of the UK consumer.”