Case Study: Inter Ceramica – Joseph Murgatroyd
July 23, 2021
Founded in 1990 by Robin Challis, this Yorkshire-based retailer began initially as a tile importer, showcasing the best Italian porcelain tile manufacturers. It expanded to include bathrooms to the tile offering, and then kitchen design. The brand now supplies kitchen furniture by Nolte and Mereway, as well as 1810, Silestone, Neff, Bosch, and Quooker, plus bathroom brands including Laufen, Catalano, GSI, and Vitra. Inter Ceramica has showrooms in Harrogate, Leeds, and Huddersfield. Here, we get insight from designer Joseph Murgatroyd about designing kitchens and his use of Winner.
Choosing Winner
Why did you choose Winner?
We used to be a tile company – importing tiles from Italy – then we went into bathrooms and then added kitchens about five years ago. We were approached by Nolte, as they wanted us to supply their kitchens, and they recommended Winner. We needed CAD software by this point to be able to price and plan jobs properly.
What do you like about Winner?
It’s a really robust system in that it never crashes on me. It prices correctly and sizes everything right, which makes it an absolute breeze to plan and price with. I know that if I place something in the design that the measurements and details are right. As the pricing is all inbuilt there’s no issue with it not syncing to an external platform like some other CAD software, so you can’t really go wrong. If it’s on the design it ends up the quote, which is brilliant.
I tend to use codes from the brochure to plan quickly and this works really well for me, as the codes bring up exactly the right product, with the right sizes and correct finish. It also means that when we order with Nolte the orders are spot on. As we have appliances and other fittings that aren’t in Winner, we use our accounting system for the full quote but transferring over the costs is really straightforward and the instant quoting Winner provides serves as a good guide.
Does this help if you’re sitting down and designing with a customer?
I tend to do all the designing before I meet the customer so that I can really focus on the design and then the conversation and sale with the customer separately. When I do meet with the customer, making changes to the colour or model is so easy – it’s just F7 and change model. It can be done in a few clicks and that helps to get to the right design and decision quickly.
Your renders and designs are really impressive, how does this help with customers?
The customers really like the renders produced by Winner and it definitely helps me sell. Some CAD packages can produce amazing renders as well but they can take 24 hours to do that. Winner can produce really good renders in a few minutes and that helps when you’re with a client and looking to close the deal.
You mentioned the robustness of Winner, but what other qualities do you like?
The support team at Compusoft are extremely helpful and always available if you ever need them. I also did a two-day training course at Compusoft which really helped me learn the system a lot faster. I’ve used CAD before, so learning to use it myself was straightforward, as it’s so easy, but the course got me to a higher level a lot faster.
What impact does knowing the details are correct when you’re designing have?
It’s massive. With other platforms, you might price up a design, present that price to a customer, and then you login the next day to find the price has changed – because it’s refreshed or there’s been a problem. It’s absolutely vital to have the correct pricing if you want to make a profit and keep the customer happy. I can’t overstate the importance of it.
How do you protect your designs and stop customers from taking your designs elsewhere?
I usually will email the basic plan without any sizes or measurements and hold back the installation pack. Some customers ask for everything as they have installers who want to check over the plans but we won’t provide that until the order is placed. Once they’ve placed it that’s when we will provide them with the installation pack.
How easy is it to design outside the box or create more freestyle designs that don’t use the standard templates?
For customers with quirkily designed houses or floors on different levels, it is possible with a bit of work. There was a customer with high vaulted ceiling and a balcony and I was able to design that. You can do pretty much anything if you put enough time and effort into it, by creating walls and floating elements. It can all be done. Winner does allow you to do all that.
Does the way you use Winner differ for contract compared to retail customers?
Not really. We design different kitchens at different price points but it’s otherwise the same. What is important is the installer pack created in Winner. We can pre-program in the annotations so they are always there to select without having to be re-typed every time. The drawings produced have to be really accurate and they always are. We’re always really confident that the dimensions are correct. Also, with manufacturers some of the end panels and other elements are oversized and you have to physically cut things down on site, but with Nolte, because there is a direct line of communication, anything I design in the plan will automatically be communicated to the Nolte factory and so everything is always the correct size when it arrives.
Why would you recommend Winner?
I would recommend it based on the accuracy, ease of use, and reliability. It’s a very solid, reliable design software.
Find out more about Inter Ceramica and their fantastic range of bespoke kitchens and bathroom:
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