Ultimate Products extends European reach with Paris showroom
Oldham consumer goods group, Ultimate Products, has expanded its international reach with the opening of a new European showroom in Paris.
It adds to its European presence with sites already established in Germany and Poland.
The owner of a number of leading homeware brands including Salter – the UK’s oldest houseware brand, est.1760, and Beldray est.1872 – held a launch event where the ribbon was cut by Dragons’ Den retail tycoon Theo Paphitis and Hajir Hajji, the CEO of Action, Europe’s fastest growing non-food discount retailer.
The new showroom is spread across a 16,500 sq ft space at the Homexpo Paris showroom complex, where the anchor tenant is JJA, one of France’s largest home furnishing suppliers.
The site, which is near Charles de Gaulle airport, is ideally located for hosting both existing and prospective customers across France and Europe.
To support the showroom’s activities, Ultimate Products has appointed a new sales team in Paris, who join the group’s other international sales teams in Germany and Poland.
Previously, the group operated a Cologne showroom, which was hugely successful in achieving traction and growth in Germany, a market that today represents approximately 30% of the group’s European sales.
The aim of Ultimate Products is to achieve a similar level of penetration within the French market.
The group currently derives approximately 30% of its revenues from European countries, where it has a much lower penetration than the UK. The group sells £1.72 of product per capita in the UK and around 80% of British households own at least one of its products.
Chief executive, Simon Showman, said: “I am massively excited to have opened a European showroom in Paris, which I am confident will help us grow our presence in the sizable French market.
“Our products are already present in most UK households, and I firmly believe that they will be just as attractive to retail partners and consumers in France, as well as the wider European market more generally.”
