The Latest Tech Trends Innovating the Kitchen Design Industry

Lily Sweeney, writer

Published at 18/08/2021, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 5 min

The Latest Tech Trends Innovating the Kitchen Design Industry — Photo © The-Latest-Tech-Trends-Innovating-the-Kitchen-Design-Industry.jpg

The kitchen design and fitting sector has been through plenty of changes and developments in the past year. Right now, with the industry bouncing back from the pandemic and UK homeowners splashing out on kitchen renovations, there’s never been a better time to start a kitchen franchise.

If you’re looking to start your kitchen franchise journey, the best thing you can do is get to grips with the sector - the standards, the competition, and most importantly, the latest trends. Technology is playing an ever-bigger part in the kitchen industry, and in this article, you’ll discover the five biggest tech trends currently revolutionising kitchen design.

The 5 biggest tech trends in the kitchen design industry right now

1. Multi-cookers

When you’re running a kitchen franchise in a fast-paced world, you need to understand that people might want to eat healthier, but won’t always be willing (or able) to spend hours and hours in the kitchen to achieve this. That’s why multi-cookers are about to take centre stage. These kitchen hubs can measure, chop, mix, blend, knead, steam and cook, all in one place. From slow cooking to steaming, multi-cookers allow your customers to:

Cook quickly
Cook healthily
Cook easily
Clean things up quickly and easily
Save time
Save space

The best multi cookers give you the freedom to cook a vast variety of meals all from the same pot. They’re incredibly easy to use and, if you have to work from a small kitchen, give you the freedom to experiment without requiring multiple appliances. – Danielle Amato, Expert Reviews

2. Smart appliances and WiFi connectivity

The rise of smart appliances will see many of your customers looking to create a smart home. Many of these appliances can allow their owners to control everything from one point (usually their mobile phone). From this point, they’ll then be able to do incredibly useful things, like looking inside of the fridge from outside of the home or adjusting appliance settings remotely.

High-tech kitchens are no longer the sole preserve of top quality restaurants - they’re rapidly moving into domestic spaces, too. Examples of kitchen technology that your franchise will likely see become more and more popular in the next few years include:

Smart fridges with built-in recipe apps, food tracking systems and cameras
Smart ovens with connected online cooking options and voice assistant compatibility
Smart precision cookers with up-to-the-minute temperature details
UV LED sterilising knife blocks which kill 99.99% of germs
Digital scales and thermometers that connect to phones and tablets

>> Read more:

3. Innovation in refrigeration

Tech doesn’t just reinvent the kitchen - it can help to reinvent the aesthetics of the kitchen. The fridge, in 2021, is more than just a way to keepfood fresh. Now, you can adjust a million different functional and aesthetic settings about your fridge, choosing the perfect one for you out of hundreds of options. Settings like:

Efficiency rating
Colour
Size
Shape
Panelling and finish
Food zones
Filtered ice
Smart functions (as discussed above)
Air filters

Bosch has recently begun rolling out refrigerators [with air filters that filter out ethylene], keeping the food you store in your fridge happy, healthy, and surrounded by fresh air. While this is great news for mitigating the damage fresh fruits can wreak on other produce, it also helps prevent pungent odors. – Mark Brezinski, Reviewed

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4. Touchscreens

In ten years, you might find that your kitchen franchise is fitting more touchscreen appliances than appliances with knobs, dials and buttons. The use of touchscreens in the kitchen is predicted to rise substantially, and finger touch and swipe controls operated through electromagnetic heat will allow customers to turn things on, control temperature, and control intensity (of flame on the gas hob, for instance).

You’re likely already familiar with the induction cooktop. Induction cooktops are safe, attractive, environmentally friendly and speedy to use. As tech branches out in this direction, be prepared for your kitchen franchise to respond to changing demands.

Even outside of cooking, touchscreens are already gaining popularity in the field of restaurant point-of-sale systems, so if you invest in a franchise that fits commercial kitchens, you’ll likely be fitting a fair few touchscreen appliances. Think about the ordering systems you’ve seen in fast food chains as an example.

Because of its accuracy, the software in a touch screen system ensures that food items will not be over- or under-ordered through the supply chain, avoiding spoilage and shortfalls. Various sales, ordering and delivery information is readily available, depending on the type of software used by the restaurant. – Jane Meggitt, Chron

5. Steam ovens

One of the biggest trends in the kitchen design industry in 2021 is the steam oven, used as an alternative to electric/gas/convection ovens. Steam technology preserves nutrients and creates a tasty, healthy result.

As you provide for the needs of your customers, both commercial and domestic, you might find that there’s an increased demand for steam ovens. Prepare for this, and know that the ability to supply and install this kind of oven is likely to come in handy. The main advantages to using a steam oven are:

Precise temperature control
Fast cooking speeds
More nutrition maintained
Cross-flavouring prevented
Lessened risk of burning

Start a successful franchise in the profitable, trendsetting kitchen industry

At this stage, you should have a strong sense of the tech trends currently defining the kitchen industry and making changes to the way that kitchen franchises across the UK do business. These trends will only grow in prominence as time goes on, so getting to grips with them now is definitely the right move. To continue your research on all things kitchen design, discover the top four kitchen design businesses in the UK and the top four interior design businesses in the UK.

If you’d like to deepen your research on more specific franchise opportunities and find the type of kitchen franchise that’s truly right for you, you should start by looking into companies like design consultancy Raison Home, kitchen solutions brand Schmidt, and kitchen facelift provider Dream Doors.