V-ZUG marked the opening of its new Studio in Showroom at Winning Appliances Redfern with the Australian retail launch of Pearl, a warmer addition to the Swiss manufacturer’s familiar mirror-glass finishes.
Joining Black Mirror Glass and Platinum across selected ovens, steamers and drawers, Pearl has a softer appearance, with fine metallic particles giving the surface a changing depth as it catches the light. It is an addition clearly intended with interiors in mind, particularly for kitchens featuring timber, pale stone and warmer neutral palettes.
“The Pearl finish is a perfect fit for Sydney living,” says V-ZUG Chief Marketing Officer Barbara Hans, who travelled from the company’s headquarters in Zug for the opening. “It complements lighter interior palettes that are often prevalent in coastal locations, while also working beautifully with warmer timber finishes.”
“Our signature mirror glass is intentionally designed to reflect its surroundings, allowing it to play a role in enhancing the key elements of an interior designer’s vision. Our refined Swiss approach means the appliances are elegant; not shouting for attention.”
The idea carries into the Studio itself. Designed by V-ZUG Global Interior Art Director Gabriel Castello, it overlooks the landscaped courtyard between the Winning Appliances showrooms on Danks Street and has been conceived with the atmosphere of a home rather than a conventional appliance display. Natural light, furniture and a more residential arrangement provide a setting in which architects, designers and homeowners can see appliances in something closer to their eventual context, with consultations, demonstrations and culinary experiences also forming part of the program.
Talking with Hans during the evening, our conversation moved easily beyond the new finish. She had recently returned from China and spoke about the differences between markets, but also about how surprisingly universal many expectations of the home remain. We found ourselves talking about refrigeration – specifically the pleasure and usefulness of having enough room to properly store food and keep it fresh – which brought the discussion back from global brand strategy to something much more ordinary: how an appliance actually improves daily life.
That practicality sits comfortably alongside the way Hans speaks about luxury. Her background includes more than 25 years working internationally across consumer and luxury brands, but at V-ZUG she is interested in the value that exists well beyond the moment of purchase. Quality and longevity are closely connected in her thinking, as is the relationship a brand maintains with the person who eventually lives with its products.
Related: CARD makes a case for simple architecture
Our conversation also turned to the people behind V-ZUG. Hans described the team in familial terms, speaking about a culture in which relationships matter, and the same idea extended to customer care. For an appliance designed to remain in a home for many years, the experience cannot end with installation; warranty, servicing and support when something eventually needs attention are part of the proposition too.
Indeed, architects and interior designers are asking more of materials and products than how they look when new, considering how they age, whether they can be maintained and what kind of support sits behind them. Appliances occupy a particularly interesting position within that conversation: they are technologically complex objects expected to coexist with kitchens that may otherwise be designed to last for decades.
Pearl’s significance is relatively simple – an appliance can sit more quietly alongside timber, stone and joinery instead of requiring the surrounding interior to accommodate a dominant finish. For V-ZUG, however, the opening of the Redfern Studio also creates another point of contact with the architects and designers making those decisions.
The evening brought together members of Sydney’s architecture and design community with V-ZUG and Winning Group representatives, including V-ZUG Managing Director Chris Kotis, Head of Sales Tim Bonguro and Winning Group Senior Partner Relationship Manager Jake Robertson. The new Studio builds on the longstanding relationship between the two companies while giving V-ZUG a dedicated environment for more detailed conversations around specification, use and integration.
Hans’ visit made the launch feel broader than the unveiling of another colour. Pearl was certainly the visual news of the evening, but much of our conversation returned to what happens after a beautiful kitchen has been photographed and occupied: food needs to stay fresh, appliances need to work, and when they do not, somebody needs to be there to look after them.
For a brand built around the idea of Swiss precision, that longer relationship may be just as important as what catches the eye in the showroom.
