You’ve likely heard their ads on the radio, complete with the catchy tagline: “Crazy about kitchens!” But if you haven’t yet set foot into one of Kitchen Mania’s three stunning showrooms – the largest of which is here in Rosebank – speaking to founder and managing director Carl Arnold will quickly convince you that the Kitchen Mania team’s passion is genuine.
“When you work with a customer, you see how a new kitchen can give them so much joy,” Carl says. “I love working closely with people and seeing their ideas and our ideas come into being. A new kitchen transforms a home – and people’s lives, really.”
Since 2009, Kitchen Mania has specialised in designing and building complete kitchens – think cabinetry, benchtops, fixtures, and fittings – all made to measure in their factory in Mount Wellington. With expert sales consultants, an in-house design team of 12, an experienced in-house installation team, and access to tradespeople and removal specialists through a sister company, the Kitchen Mania experience is one that marries budget-conscious creativity and design with start-to-finish, done-for-you service.
“There aren’t many competitors in our market who work with customers from design to manufacturing to installation,” Carl says. “We project manage the whole thing, including the plumbing and electrical, the flooring, the walls – anything and everything. Everything is taken off the customer’s hands, and everything is looked after.”
In the 25 years prior to founding Kitchen Mania, Carl made a career of importing woodworking machinery into New Zealand. After selling that business – and once again getting the itch to be his own boss – he landed on kitchen manufacturing after identifying a particular gap in the market. A ceiling gap, to be precise.
As Carl explains, in 2009, the “big box” hardware stores had begun to make their mark in the kitchen supply industry. Struggling to compete, local manufacturers were largely moving towards bespoke designs. “There was a big market in the middle of customers who couldn’t afford the bespoke-type kitchen,” says Carl, “but they wanted a bit more than the flat-pack option. And one of the big things they wanted, the dream, was to close off the tops of kitchens to the ceiling.”
(Readers will no doubt be familiar with the hard-to-reach, and therefore largely useless, gaps between the tops of the cupboards and the ceiling that feature in so many older kitchens.)
“Because in New Zealand we have 2.4m and 2.5m ceilings on the main floor,” continues Carl, “you had to build specific kitchen cabinets that went to a certain height, and everyone’s requirements were slightly different. I developed a system where we could stack cabinets on top of each other, and that’s what we called our Q-bix range. We could build the cabinets to reach as high as 3m without the huge cost of bespoke manufacturing.”
Carl describes what Kitchen Mania does, in the simplest terms, as “making boxes.” “The factory is a very good, efficient mechanism for making boxes. And that’s what we do. We make all the boxes that go together to make beautiful kitchens.”
The process of designing, manufacturing, and fitting together those boxes is one that starts with the customer, taking into account more than just the facts and figures of the remodel.
“When a customer comes to us, either by visiting the showroom or filling out our online form, the very first thing we do is assign a designer to that customer,” says Carl. “The designer then goes out to meet them on site, so we can actually see the property and where the kitchen is going to go. It’s important for us to find out whether there are kids running around, or pets, and what’s happening in that house, because that can give the designer some insight into the materials they might use, or where the light comes in, or the overall set-up of the house.”
With measurements in hand, the designer then returns to one of Kitchen Mania’s three showrooms and works up the design. The customer comes in to go over the plans, look at materials, and discuss options and price levels. Carl says the process often involves changes, adjustments, and even additional consultations on site. The goal is a happy customer who’s ready to hand off the rest to the Kitchen Mania team.
“People have busy lives these days,” says Carl. “Trying to schedule plumbers, electricians, and project manage the kitchen installation is quite a big job. Our customers can just sign the order, pay their money, and have everything happen for them.”
Each kitchen comes together in Kitchen Mania’s Mount Wellington factory, “one of the most modern in New Zealand.”
“We manufacture all the cabinetry in the factory,” explains Carl, “the cabinetry is delivered to site, and the installer puts it all together as per the plan.”
From there, Kitchen Mania’s sister company provides any additional trades support, including the removal of the old kitchen, and the space is finished off. Carl is quick to celebrate the tradespeople who make it all happen on the manufacturing and installation side. “We work with really cool people,” he says, “and the team are really cool people as well.”
That team includes Carl’s wife, Cathy, and their three adult children, who each have management roles in the business. Carl says he would describe his team’s culture as “like a family,” but not just because his actual family works alongside him.
“The whole business is like an extended family,” he says. “Everybody works bloody hard for each other, and we all celebrate the wins.”
One recent win was the introduction of a new Italian range, Cucina Lusso, featuring “sleek, minimalist lines and rich, premium finishes.” The team travels to Europe once a year to visit trade shows and keep apprised of new trends, and Carl says the designers are always looking to push the boundaries of what they can achieve for their customers.
“We’re open to looking at what we need to do to stay on trend and on point – we need those boundaries to be pushed. But our factory is set up for efficiency, so when we push the boundary, we do so in a way that keeps those efficiencies in the way we manufacture and install.”
Over the years, kitchen trends have come and gone (“When we started out 16 years ago, I’m not kidding you, 80% of what we made in the factory was dove grey”), but the quality customer service and craftsmanship provided by the Kitchen Mania team never wavers. Carl invites RBA members to stop by the showroom on Jomac Place and have a look at some of their work.
“Business owners are busy people,” he says. “We take all the hassle out of the kitchen installation. Being able to just give it to somebody to do 100% is a big thing.”
To get in touch with the Kitchen Mania team, vist their showroom at 2 Jomac Place or online at kitchenmania.co.nz.