How we ended up choosing Haecker Kitchens

Courtesy: Hacker Kitchens India

I was planning to write couple of posts but procrastination got the better of me. Last year we finalized upon
the modular kitchen brand to go ahead with. Ironically it was one I never thought I would.

We spent quite a bit of 2013 trying to visit different modular kitchen brands ( on my list ) and trying to get a feel for them. A lot of the visits initially left us confused but after couple of visits we had a fair idea. I think it would have really helped us to have visited the stores over a shorter span of time. Some of the visits like Home Town, Cucine Lube, Sleek, Espiq , Scavolini ( @ Sunrise Home Solutions ) were more of walk-ins because we discovered their presence in a mall. We also visited others like Veneta Cucine, Nolte, Hacker, Alno, Gilma Spagniola respectively.

Courtesy: Hacker Kitchens India

We had some initial discussion with Sleek, Veneta Cucine and Nolte . Sleek and Veneta Cucine even went ahead and gave us an approximate quotation based on our kitchen plan whereas Nolte was insistent on waiting till they could visit the site, do accurate measurements and give us a quote. I would have to appreciate both Sleek and Veneta Cucine for their slight aggressiveness to convert it to a deal; especially where the other folks were mildly interested. Of course our flat delivery timelines were to blame. By this time we had decided on our top 3 brands that we would approach when the time was ripe and they were - Nolte, Hacker and Veneta Cucine.

 I tried looking all over the web for customer reviews and stories of experience to find none. Mouthshut.com had a scathing and scary review of an experience of Veneta Cucine. Thankfully I also managed to chance upon European Kitchen Design blog which is written by a guy named "kitchenguy". If you are looking for some serious research on European brands, you should check out his posts ( and more importantly the comments) on European brands, his personal top 20 and the 101 on Laminates and Lacquer. We did manage to get a better idea of the brands even though it finally boils down to the dealer and service. If you see more German brands being recommended, then do remember that the a lot of the top (and large) modular kitchen brands in the world are German, have been around for about a century. But there are others too , depending on which spectrum of the price range you are looking at. And this spectrum is highly divided mind you.

Courtesy: Hacker Kitchens India

Some time back,  our builder offered  us an option where they would   have wardrobe and modular kitchens done from Nolte Express (from Nolte brand), Interwood ( Indian brand operated by the same owners of the Alno dealership in Bangalore and Impuls (from Alno). As usual, we were given a timeline to decide in order to avail of the discounted prices which already seemed a bit on the higher side. Unfortunately for us we liked the exteriors and design of both Interwood and Impuls and the interiors of Impuls and Nolte. However, Impuls was well over our budget.Although we were getting very little from Nolte in terms of offerings. Since we had liked Nolte a lot during our first visit and I had a bias towards it , we thought slight changes would help. We did visit the store and although they were patient and helpful, we never got the revised quotes and were also put off by a lot of things. 

Anyhow door-bitching or a version of it seems to be available at most German modular kitchen stores so please pull out your Ralph Laurens before you visit them.Long story short, we also visited Alno store again. (The first visit was a very good one and we had a great experience. Would really recommend the sales guy.) Due to the tie-up with our builder and because they ( or perhaps our builder ) were scared that if we sit with the designer during the tweaking of the kitchen design, we might figure out the actuals behind the pricing model, we were unable to communicate with satisfaction. The whole thing of not being able to sit was the designer was absolutely ridiculous because it was very easy to do the back calculation well ahead and realize that we were getting a negligible discount. Trying to outsmart your customers ( or potential customers) doesn't really help.

Image copyright: Koel Das

Alno's loss was Hacker's gain. By chance I had called them up to figure out the process of getting a quotation. Some brands insist on paid consultations for detailed design. Usually this is refunded if you choose the brand. Hacker sent us a quote nearer to what we were initially looking at. The design and the quote were reasonable and the designer spent sufficient time with us to give us a design within the budget we required. She was very patient and helpful and would even point out what would be expensive and out of bounds and where they could help us. The only thing that we felt queasy about was paying 75% of the cost upfront and 25% later during arrival of the kitchen at the sea port. All this is paid upfront and you are yet to see the kitchen in real life. Installation happens when it reaches your city and when you are ready to do it ( ie. flat is available, etc ).  Of course we went through the initial payments and they also helped us with the timelines  and even with last minute tweaks. 

Image copyright: Koel Das

I guess looking back, it was the comfort of being able to sit with the designer, communicate what we wanted,needed and could afford. We were never pushed to buy a higher priced module which I genuinely appreciate. We had been very specific about our requirements and affordability with Nolte and Alno, and hence I find it ironic that they couldn't identify us as serious buyers. End of design phase with Hacker, I could even point out what changes could have been made to reduce the price of the kitchen offered by Impuls (Alno). Obviously a designer would have been able to do it better. We did however need to remind the designer to send the appliances, skirting and few other fittings during installation, and in times of conflict the scheduling manager seemed to be influenced by whoever (customers requiring installation) made the most noise. All of this can be managed with some prior planning obviously.

The appliances are all from Hafele Nagold with few from the Nagold J series. The sink  and faucet are from Franke and the countertop is a Shitake Caesarstone (for which Hafele India is the sole dealer). There are very few installers for this engineered quartz and they do an amazing job with the mitre edge. You can barely see the join.The pendant lights are inspired from the Tom Dixon collection and were purchased from Ivanka Lumiere.

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Nolte Home Studio -German Modular Kitchens

Courtesy: HomeStudioIndia

 I finally managed to visit one of my favorite modular kitchen brands, Nolte. Among all the kitchen brands that I have come across, the German brands stand out by their simplicity in design and adherence to function than form. I would have loved to check out some Scandinavian brands but I don't think we have any in Bangalore (yet). I use the word "yet" because Ikea is apparently looking at Bangalore as a possible location; and when it does I am sure to pounce on its collection with much awaited glee.

Anyhow, the front desk is well- managed. On informing that we were looking around for modular kitchens, me and my silently admiring partner were taken around the studio by an experienced professional. Nolte has fewer models on display than Cucine Lube and Veneta Cucine but more than Haecker. It also has lesser options available. However the samples of finishes for wood, stone countertops are all available. So you can see what you get. And I honestly think that is great. 

Among the different finishes, I actually loved the different lacquer finishes especially the glossy ones. I think there was one with 15 (?) coats which looked almost the same as glass finishes. Wasn't very impressed with their vintage designs too. 

Courtesy: HomeStudioIndia

I am hoping the designers who come up with the initial and final designs are as experienced as the sales personnel. The ones I viewed looked tad young for me to spend my money on them.  Sorry if I sound biased but that's the way it is. The fact that we were exploring Nolte as a brand almost 9 months before we could actually place an order doesn't sit very well with most stores. Nolte Studio wasn't very different about it. However they agreed to do a basic quote if we sent our floor plan in CAD format. Unfortunately in our case the architects are not going to release the CAD format. So they have to make do with the PDF format. In such a scenario, Nolte wanted to go to the site and do the measurements to come up with the basic design. Currently I am not sure whether that comes under the paid consultation or the basic free quotation providing. Either ways, if we go ahead with Nolte, I am actually fine with it. 

However I have to admit, Veneta Cucine impressed me more in the communications department. Their sales person followed up very regularly with me, provided basic quotations across different finishes and has communicated even after. While I am yet to short list my top 3, the solid stuff of Nolte makes it an easy entrant of this list. With that quality, I probably would not mind going for an entry - level modular kitchen with some basic finishes that I can change later at some point in time. Although this doesn't fall under kitchens, Nolte also provides some basic furniture. Needless to say their quality as very good as well. 

On design, product Nolte scores high. They are definitely low on the number of choices that are available to you for selection, In terms of finishes, colors, etc. Unfortunately I still don't have a lot of info on how as a dealer/distributor, the Bangalore centre performs. And according to the European Kitchen Design blog, one should finalize a modular kitchen based on affordability ( obviously), brand, design, and finally dealer/distributor. This is where a design consultant would come in handy. If you have used  Nolte for your kitchen in Bangalore do drop me a note. I would love to get in touch and know about your experiences. Or if you had a look at it, considered it but selected some other brand, that would provide useful information as well. 

Update: 
We went to Nolte again. It was one of the 3 brands that our builder was working with to offer modular kitchens in our apartments. We had seen the mockups built by Nolte and the other two brands. To be real honest we were least excited with the mockup by Nolte. But we thought we could ask for modifications and get it to a desirable state. 

When we reached Nolte we did offer our requirements for modifications. However, a little bit into the process we realized that there were too many constraints due to Nolte's setup with the builder. So we thought maybe it was a better idea to get the kitchen done later and at retail prices. We couldn't see how  the design changes were being made in real time and hence visualize how the price was changing. So this made it all the more difficult to get a sense of the design changes vs prices.  

The sales person reminded us many a time that prices of Nolte kitchens start at `800,000 and hence it seemed like we were getting a big favour from them. Of course he forgot to specify that we were getting a sub-brand of Nolte, named Nolte Express and hence the prices were considerably lower. Additionally they had come  up with a basic design which didn't make things  and hence the choice of kitchen brand any better.  Despite all of that and the fact that he was insistent that we do not try to go for a different price brand i.e. Nolte, he did spend time in explaining  and displaying stuff. Nevertheless the entire experience and follow-up was a major put off.  We somehow never received the revised quotes and I have no idea why. Considering that we had almost mentally planned to go ahead with Nolte, months before the builder actually came up with the options, the entire experience was an unpleasant surprise. However it did help to make our choices easier. 

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Italian Modular Kitchens from Cucine Lube in Bangalore

Courtesy of Cucine Lube India

I had actually planned to visit the Veneta Cucine showroom that afternoon. Unfortunately I wrongly assumed that all shops are open on a Sunday. I walked up to the showroom to confirm that it was really closed and not appearing so due to less employees and dim lighting. Unfortunately it was really closed. Damn! Considering I dragged my behind out of the house for this trip, I was now determined to see at least one shop related to kitchen design. I looked around and realized that there was one such shop very nearby which seemed open and was conveniently located right above one of my favorite restaurants.

With my skeptical partner by my side I huffed and puffed my way up the showroom. Aha! The results of recession or possibly slow business. The showroom seemed open but had only 1 employee , less lighting and no air conditioning. The lady looked at us from the office or office space and prayed that we would go away. Unfortunately I was in my " will explore and look around" mood. Hence I smiled innocently and eagerly  and announced "We are interested in a modular kitchen". The lady realized she had to get up and endure our presence for some time. I still don't remember why she was so apparently reluctant to show us around . Possibly she was resigning, possibly the variable component in her salary was low , possibly she refused to "work" on a Sunday or most probably she judged our appearance found it ridiculous that we would even consider to buy! My bets are on the last one.

So we , rather I , dragged her along to each and every kitchen set that was present there. 
There are about 15 modular kitchens present ( approximately ). Most of the designs were based on a modern look which looked good with lacquer than the veneer options. Of course some models with veneer were good as well. The ones using glass are really nice and if your budget permits, I would actually steer you to that direction. Unfortunately you will not be able to use the beautifully designed chimneys for Indian cooking. There are some semi-spherical, cylindrical designs which add a whole new dimension to your kitchen design but are woefully low on suction design.


Courtesy of Cucine Lube India

For those who prefer a nice old-fashioned but classic design, there were 2 in wood (one of them was possibly cherry? ) with huge pyramid shaped  chimneys coming down over the counter-top. Wooden kitchens also have the advantage that they can be painted in different colors . I don't think the lacquer, veneer and glass offer that option. I was longing to see a yellow kitchen but was unhappy not to find one. The colors mostly ranged from reds, blacks, a nice lavender, mint, other green, magenta, black and wood of course.

It's very difficult to talk about pricing to any sales person for modular kitchen. But the good ones till now usually give you a correct base price . In fact sometimes I feel you can determine how good and knowledgeable a sales person is based on the way they can help you figure out basic pricing. Till date almost each and every sales person I meet ,drones on  how they can tell us the pricing only when we sit to design, choose the modules ( how many pull-outs, shelves, fittings, brands, in-built appliances or not and so on..). I still fail to realize why it doesn't strike their pretty heads, that I would never sit to design with you unless I know what value you can offer to me. And without any information on price it is very difficult for anybody to do a valuation.

Oh I forgot, after much prodding, the lady finally conceded that the starting range should be Rs 4.5 - 6 Lakhs. The shipping time is 3-4 months since they will ship the entire kitchen from Italy . I  pray for the day modular kitchens are manufactured in our dear country and lower prices are passed on to us !

 The lady looked so happy towards the end of the visit. We were finally leaving.

My Rating: 3/5

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