Kenwood kitchen tools to hit the supermarkets

Future Creative has designed a range of hand-held electronic kitchen tools for Kenwood that take the domestic appliance manufacturer into supermarket distribution for the first time.

Three products, a hand whisk, an electric can opener and an electric knife, will launch this spring in hanging packaging designed to fit on supermarket shelves.

The range is also designed to sit alongside home-wares in department stores, rather than with larger electrical items such as kettles and food processors, where these lines usually reside.

Future, which has been working on the range for over a year, won the project, worth £15 000, without a pitch.

Kenwood had originally approached it to redesign its hand blender. However, Future suggested a range of single function tools rather than an update of a single product, according to director of design Chris Christou. The updated hand blender went on sale last autumn.

“A lot of products are multi-functional but we think it’s not the best approach because people see them as being jacks of all trades and masters of none. Multi-function products can also be very cumbersome to use,” he says.

The products are designed to appeal to younger consumers than Kenwood traditionally attracts and to reflect lifestyle changes that have made cooking a much more mainstream hobby.

“Cooking is becoming more theatrical and involving these days, and we wanted the products to reflect that,” adds Christou.

The products use a combination of soft rubbers, metal and plastic to engender a more “interesting and tactile quality that users remember”. They are initially available in white, but “other colours may follow”.

In addition to designing the products, Future came up with a sales positioning strategy to increase distribution, which led to the development of the “cocoon” packaging, and it created the visual language for the range.

The products will also be available in Kenwood’s standard blue boxes for specialist retailers and for those who prefer the traditional pack.