Name: Levent Giray
Job title: Managing Director, UK
Company: VitrA
What does VitrA do and what makes its offering unique?
VitrA produces everything for the bathroom – sanitaryware, furniture, showers, brassware, accessories and tiles. We ensure that we stay at the cutting edge of design and manufacturing with our Innovation Centre, where our team of in-house designers are able to develop unique ideas and produce new technology and materials. This commitment to creativity and pushing the boundaries of technology ensure that we stay ahead of the curve. VitrA has been supplying the UK bathroom market for over 25 years and we have recently opened our flagship showroom in Clerkenwell, London.
How has your business adapted for the post-pandemic hotel and hospitality industry?
Hygiene has always been a key priority for us, and we endeavour to create spaces and products that help people feel safe. This has always been key to VitrA’s offering but we are seeing an increased awareness and demand for hygiene related technologies in a post-pandemic world.
For example, innovations such as VitrA Hygiene, a glazing process which prevents germ multiplication alleviates worries about hygiene. We have concentrated on developing touchfree technologies for communal areas, such as touchless taps and the VitrA Smart Panel flush plate that can be controlled remotely. The focus on hygiene can be seen again in our VitrA Rim-ex WC design, which does away with hard to clean rims used in traditional designs.
What can the hotel and hospitality industry learn from the global pandemic?
The ways in which the hotel and hospitality industries have adapted during, and post-pandemic has been inspiring. From this sector, we can assist in balancing the public’s renewed expectation of enhanced hygiene standards with creating beautifully designed spaces where people can meet and celebrate together.
Among the big social shifts to have occurred over the last 18 months (e.g., changing value expectations; hotels as workplaces; building trust and loyalty with Gen-Z; wellness; hotels as communities), which will be the most significant driver of change over the next 3-5 years and why?
Over the last 18 months, we have had to prioritise our mental and physical wellbeing more than ever and this will be reflected in the consumer’s expectation of a hospitality experience. Health and safety and wellness will need to be considered but also the need for a ‘greener experience’. We can partner with hospitality venues to address the global challenges of water saving and minimising the impact that projects have on the environment while continuing to design products which are built to last.
What products will you be featuring at HIX this year and why should visitors visit your stand?
We will be exhibiting the latest in a long line of successful VitrA collaborations with world class designers. Liquid is a full bathroom collection created in partnership with Tom Dixon. The collaboration is contemporary while also being timeless. Tom’s first bathroom collection is reason enough to visit the stand but it does offer something for everyone, the collection offers a huge amount of versatility which will suit a wide variety of hospitality settings.
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline for VitrA that you can share with HIX attendees ahead of the event?
We are looking forward to attending Tom Dixon’s talk at Hix and hearing more about his take on designing for hospitality environments. Looking ahead to 2022 we are very excited to be launching two new complete ranges, Root and Archiplan, so watch this space!
What are you most looking forward to about HIX 2021?
We launched our new showroom in Clerkenwell earlier this year and have been hosting a series of events to reconnect with the design and architecture community – the launch of Liquid by Tom Dixon playing a key part in this. HIX is the perfect platform for us to continue in building new connections and seeing old friends in the industry!
