Brabantia: Designed for living

MANILA, Philippines - Have you ever spent more than two seconds thinking of garbage bins?” asked Danny den Hartog, Brabantia area sales manager for Asia Pacific, at the opening recently of Brabantia’s first store in the Philippines, located on the third floor of furniture concept store Dimensione in Bonifacio High Street.

Who would have thought that anything so mundane could be in the least bit interesting?   But there’s nothing ordinary about Brabantia waste bins, whether it be its silent closing system, fingerprint-proof coating, or its new flat-back design that makes it easy for it to stand neatly flushed against a wall or unit. In fact, Hartog ventures further to say that the iconic Brabantia wastebin is something you would not hesitate to show off in your living room to impress your visitors. Such elegance does not come cheap, but you spend thousands of dollars on an expensive sofa, Hartog observes, so why would you settle for a crappy $10 waste can? 

“Brabantia believes in creating products made with integrity, by people who care about quality,” Hartog says. And to back this up, Brabantia offers a 10-year warranty on many of their products.

The leading manufacturer of premium home products had its humble beginnings in a small Dutch town named Aalst in the Netherlands. The business was started by the Van Elderen family in 1919, producing milk cans, sieves and funnels.

It was in 1955 when they introduced their first range of pedal bins. The first waste bins featuring touch bin technology was introduced in 1999.  They continue to innovate, even encouraging customer participation wherein the winning designs in a global competition get  to be featured on their  waste bins. The Union Jack is one of the more popular designs, Hartog says. They have stainless steel garbage bins where you can segregate your non-biodegradable and biodegradable waste, complete with biodegradable plastic liners. With its securely fitted  lid, foul odor becomes the least of your worries.

Besides waste management products, Brabantia is also well known for their line of laundry essentials, kitchen tools and storage, as well as bathroom accessories.

 â€œNobody likes ironing clothes,” Hartog remarks.  Imagine yourself living in your condo and faced with the formidable task of having to press your own clothes. Brabantia makes this chore “more fun” and yes, safer, with their thoughtfully designed ironing boards, which feature heat resistant covers made with the same material as a fire fighter’s suit. There are models with a built-in linen rack and which can carry as much as 80 kilos at the center and 25 kilos at its nose. You are assured of safety and comfort, and they are meant to last as well. Hartog says  his own grandmother’s ironing board is 40  years old.

Their most successful introduction in 2013 are the laundry bags in stylish design and colors such as purple, aqua, yellow and black. “They can even serve as beach bags which you can take to Boracay, or use to carry your kid‘s toys” Hartog says. The laundry bag serves the whole laundry cycle, as receptacle for collecting your dirty clothes, as a bag to transport clothes to the machine for washing and then, for ironing. “And this, all done in style,” Hartog adds.  Brabantia also offers “practical indoor and outdoor drying solutions that include WallFix and rotary dryers, pull-out drying lines as well as drying racks.”

In Holland, every family has at least seven Brabantia products in their home, Hartog says. “You can decorate every room of your house with a Brabantia product,” such as a stylish solar weighing scale in your bathroom or even a soft touch stainless steel toothpick holder on your dining table. You can buy the same specially designed corkscrew that Cathay Pacific has used  in their in-flight service. In Hong Kong, at least 2,000 Brabantia can openers are sold in a year,” says Rich King Teh of Garden Barn Inc., the official local distributor of Brabantia products.

While Brabantia products have been available in the Philippines through retail outlets such as Rustan’s and True Value, Hartog cites three important reasons why Brabantia decided to open its own store in the country.  “We want to show our full range of products in the Philippines all in one location. We also want more space to test new products we’d like to introduce in the market. And we want to get direct customer feedback,” Hartog shares.

They’ve given that customer a name, Anna. And a key question they’d like to know the answer to is, does she want to use their products? They have assumed a more emotional approach in their marketing — “from head to heart”, “from convincing to seducing,” Hartog says.

Brabantia products are “designed for living, wherever you live.”

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For information, call 833-1080, fax 832-5240, visit or  www.brabantia.com or e-mail admin@gardenbarn.com.ph.