What changes when the manufacturer is part of the conversation
Written by
09 September 2026
•
6 min read
It’s easy to see a bathroom in a commercial or multi-residential project and only take in the finished space. But behind every vanity and mirror cabinet has been a thoughtful process of specification, coordination and decision-making, often started well before building consent.
The process is about far more than simply selecting a vanity from a catalogue.
Across apartments, hotels, aged-care facilities and other large-scale developments, bathroom products must respond to a wide set of considerations. Aesthetics matter, but so does accessibility, durability, installation, maintenance, consistency and long-term adaptability. There is also the reality of budgets and the complexity of delivering hundreds of rooms.
Bath Co, previously Smail & Co, has been part of this process for many projects across New Zealand. With more than 50 years of manufacturing experience in cabinetry, the Christchurch-based, family-owned company combines local manufacturing with its hand-on approach to project support.
“Getting that right direction very early is critical,” says Bath Co National Commercial Manager Chris Andersen. “There are so many people vying for the time of the specifier. We’re focused on making those interactions succinct but impactful.”
With a background as the former managing partner of an architectural practice, Chris understands first-hand the competing considerations involved in specification. That experience now informs Bath Co’s approach to commercial projects: getting involved early enough to understand what the project is trying to achieve, and then helping identify the most practical way forward.
A direct line to the manufacturer
Every project begins differently. For some, Bath Co may be engaged to help specify an existing product from its range. For others, early access to plans can reveal an opportunity to adapt a standard solution or develop something more tailored.
“Getting the plans at an early stage is really helpful,” says Chris. “We might have a product suite that is a standard product in our range that can slot in really easily. Or then we might have to go to customisation for the project, so it’s just understanding that quite early in the piece.”
That process can involve interpreting plans, working through technical requirements and determining what level of project support is required. For tailored solutions, Bath Co’s manufacturing team can develop detailed dimensional and technical documentation to define the product’s form, configuration and spatial requirements, before refining internal componentry, functionality and plumbing set-outs.
Importantly, custom doesn’t necessarily mean increased cost. In some cases, tailoring a solution can even help to remove unnecessary spending. Sometimes, relatively small changes can create a more project-specific outcome without requiring an entirely new product. A standard cabinetry unit might be adapted through a custom colour, CNC detailing or changes to the drawer fronts, for example.
For one Christchurch development, Bath Co worked with a standard unit from its collection as the foundation before introducing custom paint and vertical detailing across the cabinetry faces. A simple intervention that helped give the bathrooms a more distinctive identity.
By working with the manufacturer, there was the ability to create something different, including with colour.
“As international trends embrace more considered and individual colour palettes, Bath Co works closely with specifiers to translate a project’s wider design vision into the bathroom furniture. Our custom colour offering is a one-of-a-kind capability in New Zealand supported by a newly upgraded Italian paint line, bringing advanced finishing technology and a level of production capability not seen at this scale in this part of the world to our Christchurch manufacturing facility.”
This gives specifiers greater freedom to explore colour, coordinate with surrounding materials and create a finish that feels unique to the project.
Durability, practicality and long-term performance
With their products specified in many high-use commercial environments, the Bath Co team understands the importance of choosing the right materials, hardware and finishes.
“Moving away from some of this ‘fast fashion’ in the bathroom industry is important,” says Chris. “We want to ensure that what we’re coming up with is going to go in there and stand in place for a long time.”
This thinking is especially important in sectors where the needs of users may change over time, such as in aged-care facilities.
“You want it to be beautiful, but also practical. You’re getting the form and the function that’s fit for the space,” says Chris, whether this be considerations such as handle heights and pull depths, recessed cabinetry, fixed shelving or colour choices that assist users living with dementia.
The company has also introduced adaptive product design as a standard specification for national aged-care providers, allowing bathroom and laundry spaces to be more easily adapted as users’ needs or levels of care change.
Similar thinking has informed some of Bath Co’s work in co-housing and hospitality, where future adaptation, intuitive use, installation simplicity and reduced onsite waste can all become part of the design process.
For hotels in particular, a bathroom needs to accommodate people of different ages, abilities and backgrounds while remaining easy to clean and maintain.
“If something works really well in a hotel, we can look at bringing that into our normal range,” says Chris. “It’s about intuitive design: people being able to understand very easily how to interact with the product.”
Support beyond specification
Bath Co’s involvement in a project doesn’t end once a product has been specified or delivered.
“We have the ability to go on site with whatever product is intended for supply and actually go through with the main contractor, the architect and the subtrades about how our product works and what to do to get the best out of it.”
It also allows the team to identify potential issues before they become a costly error to fix.
“Once a construction site is live, once things are being built on site, it’s organised chaos. So we take the time to come out, talk with the teams involved and ask the questions that might identify things that have been missed in the design phase or possible obstacles.”
On a recent apartment development, a pre-manufacture site review identified a potential clash between a mirror cabinet door and the architrave at the bathroom entrance. With the architect and site team present, the solution was simple: reverse the cabinet hinge design so the door opened away from the wall return. Identifying the issue before production meant the adjustment could be incorporated into the design from the outset, avoiding the potential problem being repeated across 38 bathrooms.
From established collections and modular systems through to made-to-order solutions, Bath Co’s commercial offering is built around flexibility.
For architects, designers, developers and contractors, working directly with a local manufacturer brings manufacturing knowledge into the project when it can still make a difference.
“Getting involved early gives us the opportunity to understand what the project is trying to achieve,” says Chris. “That’s where we can provide the best-fit solution.”
Explore Bath Co’s products on ArchiPro, see how other professionals have used them across projects, and discover Bath Co’s Commercial Capabilities.