January 28, 2019

The 2019 Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) is welcoming many new and returning brands, including those expanding on booth space and celebrating various milestones. KBB spoke exclusively to a handful of them to get a sense of what they are hoping to accomplish at the show and what they will be featuring in terms of new products and trends.

Ponte Giulio USA, Booth SL3480
This company is returning to KBIS to reintroduce attendees to its bathroom safety products and launch its HUG Collection of designer grab bars.

“I look forward to meeting many people I have connected with via phone, email and LinkedIn and getting in-person feedback from designers from all over the country,” said Becky Wright, division manager for showrooms at Ponte Giulio USA. “I know what I like about this new line and am curious to see if attendees at KBIS like the same things I do or if they focus on other features.”

The HUG collection also features shower seats and cabinets with built-in grab bars, and the company will also provide information on its new accessible shower enclosures.

The company’s HUG collection

Neolith, Booth SL432
The company has been a KBIS exhibitor since 2014, when it wanted to show and tell the audience about its sintered stone. Goals for exhibiting this year include increasing awareness of the Neolith brand and its various applications, uncovering new opportunities with existing and future customers and growing its network of distributors.

“Over the past year, we have significantly expanded the global production and accessibility of the Neolith sintered stone material,” said Mar Esteve, director of marketing, Neolith by The Size. “As we continue to grow into 2019, customer satisfaction and meeting face to face with designers, distributors and prospects is more important than ever. Exhibiting at KBIS continues to be our biggest opportunity for networking in North America and introducing our latest product offerings to the marketplace. We are always looking for new ways to make the Neolith experience an excellent one for our distributors, designers and their clients and look forward to building on that through KBIS 2019 and beyond.”

Neolith will be featuring its eight new patterns, which were chosen based on a series of live distributor feedback surveys from architects, designers, specifiers and the public at three special events last September, including Maison et Objet, London Design Festival and the special event Neolith Nature held concurrently with Marmomac. The new patterns represent realistic surfaces that incorporate the textures of their natural counterparts – stone and wood.

“We have so many exciting new and existing products within the Neolith surfacing collection that a bigger space was essential in showing their true beauty and displaying all of the resilient features,” said Esteve. “We also wanted to highlight different applications of Neolith surfacing, which required an expanded booth.”

New York-New York is the most recent addition to the Neolith Fusion Collection.

Mat Inter, Booth SL3054
This 60-year-old French company first learned of KBIS at last year’s Coverings show, and this is the first year it will be exhibiting. Mat Inter will launch the fixMI system for the first time in the U.S.

“We have a twofold goal with KBIS: We would like to meet American buyers to show our new system, but we would also like to find distribution partners or even local manufacturing partners,” said Guy Maxis and Kerstin Seeber, the company’s owners. “We are convinced that fixMI will meet the high expectations of the American consumers, and KBIS is the best place for us to present this breakthrough innovation in the North American market.”

fixMI trim and bathroom and kitchen accessories will be the only products Mat Inter will be featuring at the show, as the owners feel they should have the spotlight.

The patented fixMI system combines a specially designed decorative tiling trim with various accessories for your clients’ bathrooms and kitchens.