We talk to Kate Ware from The Bath Works to find out more about
what their business offers and what drives them to succeed.
What was your first job?
At the age of 16 I was a retail assistant at New Look alongside attending college, I took every shift I could get and loved the experience of working in a team and within the various departments of the store. After college, I took a secretarial job in an estate agent’s and it wasn’t long before I switched over to the sales side, I really enjoyed this part of my career and for 15 years continued in the industry until taking maternity leave. After having both my daughters I joined my husband Steve within his business and helped start and develop The Bath Works, haven’t looked back since.
When was The Bath Works first established?
The Bath Works was first established in 2017 in a studio in Moordown, Bournemouth. Our other business Gas & Plumb Bits, a heating and plumbers merchant, was selling bathroom products over the trade counter and then premises became available a few doors up, so we leapt at the chance and hence, The Bath Works was born. We then opened a 2500 sqft showroom on Gore Road in New Milton and more recently a similar sized one in Southbourne in July this year.
What services does your company offer?
We offer a fantastic solution for those choosing their next bathroom as designing a bathroom is a challenge however, with our highly experienced designers and sales consultants, the process is made a whole lot easier. Focusing on the practical elements of your bathroom first, we start the planning of your bathroom, once this is achieved, we can then home in on the style side of designing a client’s project by understanding their wants and desires to achieve the finished bathroom they envisaged and provide some “wow” along the way. Once we have completed this process of planning and designing, we are able to give client’s an opportunity to step into their bathroom through the eyes of Virtual Reality using VR headsets within our presentation room.
We are also able to offer all our client’s access to our extensive portfolio of manufacturers that we work closely with furthermore, provide them with the benefit of our exclusivity with such suppliers through our buying group, The IPG.
Our in-house design team are always prepared to either work with the client directly or indeed with their preferred architect, interior designer, builder or installer to deliver the design solution that works best for their bathroom.
(PICTURED LEFT) Kate Ware
You recently opened a new Southbourne showroom, how is that going?
In July this year we opened a lovely new Showroom in Southbourne and relocated our Moordown Studio team to this location. It has been so well received and has really given us the opportunity to showcase that bathrooms are a huge part of a home’s interior so, we have given it a holistic interiors feel with wallpaper, acoustic and waterproof wooden slat panelled walls to compliment the vast displays of bathroom and tile products available, with the added benefit that client’s can also buy these extra bits from us.
In October we co-hosted a great industry event (Society of British and International Interior Design) with KTM Design, it went incredibly well with over 70 attendees. It was a great event with lots of very valuable networking for everyone, between us, interior designers, architects, manufacturers etc. We were absolutely privileged to also have the CEO and Founder of SBID Vanessa Brady come and give a talk to everyone too. We keep being asked when the next event is, so watch this space!
We see you have embraced virtual reality technology – have customers embraced this as a way to help choose designs?
From the start we have used VR software but in the last two years we have made a significant investment in this by just levelling up the experience for every client. In Southbourne we have a whole presentation room dedicated to this. When a client’s project has had its final tweaks, we invite those clients in to come and step into their bathroom by putting a headset on, whilst it still being visible on a screen for others to witness their view, all whilst sipping a decent coffee or indeed a glass of wine from the wine fridge! We will shortly be creating the same over in our New Milton Showroom. It’s such a good way to really get a feel for a room and we can add all our wallpapers, tile choices etc to it, it really does replicate the end result.
What is currently trending in bathroom design?
We are seeing people become more and more bold with coloured furniture, ceramics and with patterned tiles. Wallpapers are very popular for cloakrooms with people opting for dark and moody styles. Also, slatwalls as well, we have both the acoustic and waterproof versions on display in our Southbourne Showroom and clients love these; we’ve recently finished a project of several bathrooms within one property and the master suite has the most beautiful tiles on the wall with the slat wall added as a feature on the ceiling.
What do you think makes a good entrepreneur?
For me and my fellow Directors, I would say it’s keeping fluid and ahead of the changes to come, this is certainly our approach in which suits our business. We are creative, we think outside of the box and always have our ear to the ground, listen to the team and of course our clients on both sides of the business. Someone who has strong values in looking after their team will always have their team look after them too. Basically, we care.
What drives you to succeed?
I’ve always been a very determined person and if I want something, I certainly go for it. It might be that the result is instant, or it might mean that that you must keep going for it over a longer period, my inner tenacity means I don’t give up in what I want and what I believe in. Always have a goal of where you want your business and yourself to be but equally, always recognise how far you’ve come and what you’ve achieved. All those little fails and losses along the way are little nuggets of knowledge that just build you up for where you want to and should be.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years time I’d love to see that we have kept the same team who have grown with us by ways of being market leaders locally, more showrooms and achieve more industry recognition, something that has already started by recently winning an award. To be the place that local clients want a “Bath Works” bathroom would mean the world to all of us.
What are your plans for 2024?
We never sit still so next year will bring a private presentation room over in our New Milton Showroom much like the one in Southbourne. It offers clients a nice relaxed but private space to indulge in their bathroom design choices. We will also be updating some of the displays in New Milton and generally giving it a freshen up. Plus, more events, we already have more networking events in mind along with trade training sessions. Both the showrooms offer a great setting for hosting both types of events and with some of the exciting brands we have added there would be an enormous amount of value to the installers by recognising our whys on choosing certain brands for projects.
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