Worktops are one of the key ingredients in creating the perfect kitchen. These days they are high up on the list of necessities when planning a room, with some consumers often creating their dream design around a worktop.

Worktops have a tremendous influence on the overall appearance of a kitchen," agrees Simon Darbyshire, md Pfleiderer Industrie. "It is pleasing to see that good kitchen specialists no longer treat their choice as an afterthought."

This change in views has been brought on by a culmination of factors, most obviously the latest trend for kitchens as open plan living spaces, increasing the need for worktops that integrate a wide range of materials, designs and finishes. In fact, research shows that worktops as a percentage of the overall kitchen budget has risen from nine percent to 13% in recent years.

The industry has met demands from consumers seeking a wider choice of products and the market is now overflowing with a plethora of different materials, finishes, colours and designs. The demand for natural materials has grown phenomenally over the past few years, with current trends favouring the darker wood and stone finishes.

The popularity of such materials has undoubtedly contributed to the growth of the worktop sector as a whole. Consumers are willing to invest a lot of time and money on their kitchens acknowledging that a quality kitchen will add value to their home. "In spite of recessionary talk, the time poor, cash rich philosophy still very much applies," comments Stuart White, md, Bushboard. "As sales have shown over the last five years, people will pay for the product and the solution."

However, it is the laminate sector that holds the largest share of the market and it is also in this sector where we have seen major growth in terms of design. With the aid of sophisticated technology, manufacturers are now able to create laminate surfaces that look and feel like real wood or stone materials. "Laminate manufacturers have responded to the trends for real stone and wood surfaces by better replication of natural materials, says Andy Sutton, business development director at IDS. "Laminate worktops continually reinvent themselves with high print definition and texture development and this ensures their popularity with the consumer."

Research shows that the worktop sector will continue to achieve good growth with a gradual rise in spending on natural materials, providing consumers continue to regard worksurfaces as a fundamental element of kitchen design.

Inside Analysis

Stuart White, md of Bushboard on the kitchen worktops market

Published statistics from AMA Research estimate the UK worktop market to be worth around £150m. Laminate worksurfaces have the largest share by value at 70%. This equates to around 80% share by volume, although it's very difficult to be precise as worksurface manufacturing also goes into schools, hospitals, laboratories and many other applications not just kitchen.

The market by volume has seen fairly modest growth, typically 2-3% per year. I think many will be expecting less than this during 2008. Statistics also confirm that the importance of worksurfaces as a percentage of the overall kitchen budget has grown from 9% to 13%. This underlines the shift towards mid and upper end worksurface materials generated by a more design-aware consumer willing to pay more for premium products. In laminates this translates into more sophisticated surface textures emulating freshly sanded wood or riven stone, high definition print giving superb clarity to designs and simply by offering designs that are of the moment. Exotic woodgrains, metallic particles and tactile neutrals are where it's at right now.

Solid surfacing shows the greatest sign of growth for the mid to upper-mid market. There is a definite market niche of consumers aspiring to the seamless appeal of solid surfacing at a more affordable price point than bespoke fabrication. The availability now of volume manufactured off-the-shelf solid surfaced worktops, such as our Encore range, gives the product much greater customer reach. 

RMI is predominantly driving worksurface sales as the capacity to build new houses is still well short of the government's ambitious, some might say optimistic, targets. Consequently the 220,000 or so new homes built annually are just not enough! When compared to an average 1.5 million house moves per year and the number of new kitchens this generates, new build still only represents a small percentage of worktop sales.

Although predictions for the housing market and recession are rife, there is clearly still a latent demand for affordable housing. Where consumers don't or can't afford to buy, rental opportunities emerge and investors and landlord do. Either way, RMI is likely to become more important as consumers elect to improve their home rather than move or investors refurbish property for rent.

For the industry, the impact of emboldened, design-aware consumers is the exponential and unrelenting growth in choice. Our ability to present this cohesively is vital if we are to deliver 'value for money' across this product spectrum.