The French kitchen and home furniture giant lands in Bilbao
Mobalpa opens a 240 square meter store at the end of Gran Vía
Bilbao’s Gran Vía continues to receive new tenants. Mobalpa, the European giant specialized in the manufacture and distribution of kitchens, bathrooms and home furniture, has just landed at number 83 of the main commercial artery of the Biscayan capital. With more than 350 establishments around the world, the French company places the north of Spain as one of its main expansion axes.
The establishment occupies 240 square meters, includes five exhibitions, incorporates an area for samples of materials and colors and recreates a fully equipped apartment. With the one in Bilbao, it already has 11 stores in Spain, since its arrival in 2019, including one in Barakaldo. The others operate in Santander, Marbella, Madrid (3), Ávila, Valencia, Málaga and Girona, all under a franchise regime.
Just like the one in Bilbao, managed by Iñaki Burgo, who attributes the firm’s growth to a “paradigm shift. The pandemic has taught us the importance of our home and feeling comfortable in it. And the kitchen is, traditionally, the heart of Basque homes, a place to meet and share, but also where to create and enjoy».
Peak time for reforms
The new store will employ 4 people at a critical time for a sector driven by the boom in reforms and increasingly gaining prominence in the streets of Bilbao with new openings. «We saw in Mobalpa the best ally to continue creating dreams together with our clients with the highest possible quality and guarantee at very affordable prices. Discovering that it is a family group, seeing how it controls the entire process, from the design to the creation of the furniture, the distribution or the transport, was the key to joining them”, emphasizes Burgo. “If you want to go fast, the best is to go alone. But when you want to go far, you need good companions », he says. Three differentiated spaces Mobalpa stores follow the same concept. A third of the space is occupied by an exhibition area that invites “the client to be inspired”. In the center there is a creative area, “with the team of designers serving and advising the client.” The third area is designed as a “projected apartment” to offer the client an “almost real” visualization. The objective is to accompany the client, imagine their ideal kitchen by their side and turn it into reality, taking into account ergonomics, storage, functionality, design and, obviously, price».
Mobalpa arrived in Spain to challenge Ikea and Leroy Merlin. All its production is carried out in its four factories in Thones, a town located at the foot of the Alps, next to the border with Switzerland. It offers a 10-year guarantee on all the furniture it sells and a 25-year guarantee on its parts, such as hinges or drawers. The multinational invoiced more than 7.7 million euros in our country last year, doubling the sales of 2020. In the first half of this year it has continued to grow at a double-digit rate, specifically 14%. These numbers confirm the company’s commitment to Spain as the first international market with the greatest potential.
White, the best selling color
Kitchen furniture represents 90% of sales in the Spanish market. White is still the best-selling color, along with matte black. “Everything reminiscent of nature” is also very fashionable, company sources underline, such as wood grain, green and blue tones, and stone-effect countertops. They are ‘bestsellers’ that are now arriving in Bilbao.