Don’t ignore the humble tap

Written by Steve Collinge - International speaker, thought leader, retail influencer and commentator, MD Insight Retail Group & Executive Editor Insight DIY.

I’ve been spending time recently deep diving into different Home Improvement product categories, looking at what’s new, what’s interesting and forming views and opinions on the sales and profit opportunities available to leading retailers and suppliers alike.

The category that has recently caught my attention is taps and specifically the instant boiling water and filtered water taps that are now widely available across the market. The latest technological innovations are beginning to shake up the kitchen industry as iconic appliances like kettles are being replaced forever by smart new, space-saving gadgets, designed to make our lives easier.

Although well established with the Specialist Kitchen Retailers, for some reason the big-box Home Improvement retailers are late getting to the party for premium taps and it now presents a significant sales and profit opportunity for their businesses. 

But before we dig deeper, let’s take a short look at the history of the tap.

The History

The growth of the UK’s major cities in the 18th century drove the need for the building of an extensive plumbing network. Not since Roman times had the country had such an effective way of transporting water from the original sources to our homes. For many years, the indoor tap was only really a privilege of the wealthy, but in the second half of the 19th century, taps began to become regular features in an increasing number of homes.

At the same time, the tap water quality was also beginning to improve. In 1804 John Gibb had invented the process of using sand filters to purify water in Scotland and 25 years later, the Chelsea Waterworks Company provided London for the first time with a treated water supply. This soon became common across the UK and in 1855 new regulations demanded that water must be of a certain quality and in 1897, England first added Chlorine to purify the public water supply.

If you’re interested in a more detailed history of the tap, Victoria Plum have written a great article that even stretches as far back as Roman times, who knew! 

Victoria Plum Blog - History of Taps.

The Development of the Tap

Whether it’s making the tap faster, more efficient or healthier, innovators are constantly looking at new ways to make out interaction with taps even more convenient. 

The concept of the boiling water tap was born in 1970 thanks to instant soup. Dutch manufacturer Henri Peteri had a vision to replace kettles with an instant boiling water dispenser, making instant soup truly instant. After his son took up the task and with years of development, the first boiling water tap was eventually launched in 1992.

Products such as hot water taps and filtered tap systems are the perfect accompaniment for the 21st century kitchen, providing many benefits to the modern-day homeowner who is often time-poor and looking for smart products that can help make everyday life just that little bit easier and quicker.

A hot water tap provides an energy efficient and safe solution to accessing instant boiling water, without the need to switch on the kettle or boil a pan. Typically, kettles are overfilled so you’ll be boiling more water than you need, but with an instant tap, you’ll only use the desired amount, meaning no energy or water is wasted.

Although installing one of these taps is more expensive, according to today’s manufacturers not only is it more convenient, but compared to boiling a kettle, depending on how many times you boil your kettle every day, they can prove to be cost-effective in the long run.

One of the largest brands in this sector GROHE predicts that more and more homes will be switching their kettles for this streamlined alternative, transforming the way we think and carry out everyday tasks such as food preparation, cooking and hosting guests. According to data from Trend-Monitor’s Kitchen Purchasing Trends Consumer Insight report, hot water taps are now becoming a kitchen staple, and data highlights that installations are up 50% year-on-year.

Read the report here – Trend Monitor Kitchen Purchasing Trends.

The Control Centre of our Homes

The kitchen is of course the control centre of the home, not just a place to cook and eat, but also to spend time with our family and friends, entertain guests, work, relax and unwind.

Water is used for drinking and cooking all over the world. It’s fair to say that the kitchen tap is probably the most used and hardest working feature in any kitchen. According to research, an average family is estimated to use or touch the kitchen tap more than 40 times a day and our taps are responsible for around 18% of the total water consumption in our homes. (Source - https://www.homestratosphere.com/kitchen-faucet-history/). 

It therefore makes sense that we should think more carefully about our choice of taps, including how to choose the right one for the style of kitchen and our own particular lifestyles. Too often, when purchasing a new kitchen, the choice of tap is bottom of the list. Let’s face it, it’s just not that exciting! It’s not like choosing the cabinets and the worktops, getting the right look that delivers the Wow feeling that we’re all searching for when we’re investing in a new kitchen. Even under cabinet lighting, tiles, the designer splashbacks and even the sink receive more careful thought and consideration than the taps.

Often more thought goes into the choice of Splashback than the kitchen tap.

Too often I hear that kitchen designers at the likes of B&Q, Homebase and Wickes simply stick a standard retailer branded, kitchen tap into a new kitchen project. What a wasted opportunity to delight a customer, not to mention the lost sales and profit opportunity for the retailer!

Specialist Kitchen retailers have always been pretty good at explaining the benefits of hot water taps and trading kitchen buyers to pay the premium prices for the leading brands. But the trend is now rapidly making its way to the DIY market, with B&Q currently rolling out the GROHE Red to their ‘Wow’ in-store kitchen displays in their larger warehouse stores.

The B&Q Wow kitchen featuring the GROHE Red.

A Saturated Market

In recent years, the market for hot water taps has become increasingly saturated with many branded offerings now available. Better-known brands such as Quooker and Grohe as well as Franke, Abode, InSinkerator, Roux Lifestyle and CDA, all compete with what on the surface looks like very similar offerings.

It’s ultimately down to the brands now to achieve real differentiation between their products, by delivering features that bring real benefit to the user and by incorporating unique features that provide resolutions to customer pain-points. 

One very important aspect is safety and the reassurance that family members, particularly children, the elderly or less able and are not going to get scolded by the boiling water. Some brands including Grohe have now incorporated child lock features and applied clever cooling technology to the exterior surface of their taps to remove this risk.

Filtered water taps especially premium models like GROHE Blue Home which offer additional features such as chilled and carbonated options are great for busy households or when entertaining guests. Both still and sparkling water can be infused with a whole host of herbs, fruits and flavours to create delicious thirst-quenching beverage and also provide superior taste and more efficient cooking too. Poaching salmon, boiling vegetables and even rinsing fresh fish and meat in filtered water can make all the difference to the taste of the dish, as well as making family dinner times quicker too. 

In the filtered water tap market, the very latest advancements in design and technology are focused on connectivity and smart technology capabilities. Following suit with other smart and connected appliances in the kitchens industry, the key benefits focus on health and convenience. 

The GROHE Blue Home still and sparkling filtered water tap utilises mobile app functionality to allow homeowners to track and monitor their household water intake. Looking further ahead to new developments in this area, we expect voice activation and the use of an app to control the tap operation itself to come into play. 

Summary

These high-tech kitchen taps are an ideal solution for any home, and particularly for those who want to implement a more sustainable lifestyle, those who enjoy the taste of filtered or sparkling water or those who don’t enjoy the quality of the tap water in the home.

Hot water taps are actually a great space-saving feature for the modern kitchen. It means the kitchen work surface can stay de-cluttered as you don’t need a kettle, leaving you more room to prepare food and the ability to create a streamlined, minimalist look. Busy families or young professionals who are time-poor will find the time-saving qualities of a hot water tap appealing. 

Conclusion

The opportunity for the leading Home Improvement retailers to embrace and grow sales of premium instant hot and filtered cold water taps is huge.

After weeks of creating the perfect design for a customer’s new kitchen, kitchen consultants must resist the temptation to simply drop in a cheap kitchen tap when the latest generation products really are game-changers that can transform our customers lives and deliver a significant boost to the sales and profitability of the overall kitchen project.

Steve Collinge is an international speaker, influencer, retail commentator and is Managing Director of Insight Retail Group Ltd and executive editor of Insight DIY. You can follow Steve on LinkedIn here and on Twitter here.