Philipe van der Loo, managing director at Quooker Emirates LLC, explains how choosing the right tap can make all the difference.
How important are taps for hotels and venues, and what do you offer at Quooker?
Besides delivering 100ºC boiling water to speed up the preparation of food and hot beverages, the water from the Quooker system is filtered, and you can also add chilled and sparkling water. Enabling hotels to get rid of water dispensers and kettles in staff pantries, thereby reducing the usage of plastic, Quooker is part of the reduction of the carbon footprint and, therefore, adds to hotels’ CSR activities.
When it comes to the front bar and café counter, adding a Quooker tap will, not only offer the convenience of boiling water but also a stylish look and feel to the space.
A decent cup of black breakfast tea requires 100°C boiling water to bring out the flavour and brew it to perfection. Unfortunately, the vast majority of taps used by hotels don’t achieve this. The patented technology of Quooker ensures that it does dispense 100°C boiling water, exactly when you need it, and in the exact quantity that you require.
What’s the latest in technology?
Quooker was created as a result of innovation, so R&D is the basis of our company. In our HQ in the Netherlands, we have a team of more than 35 people working direct in R&D and, as a company, we have over 80 registered patents.
We know that our future depends on new innovations and it’s our ambition to bring new, breakthrough innovation to the market every three years. Our latest addition to the portfolio was the Quooker CUBE, for chilled and sparkling water, which now makes the Quooker trap a true tap that does it all.
Have you implemented any new measures in the wake of COVID-19? Any special requests for contactless/no-touch, for example?
Our number one priority at this time is our clients, our partners and our communities.
The UAE government has outlined that every effort should be made across society to minimise social contact in order to slow the spread of the virus. As a company, we have adopted this policy, however, this means that we have reduced working capacity so our normal services take a little more time than usual.
We remain available to take inquiries and orders and clients can reach us via phone calls, email and we can also organise a video call to answer queries. They can also visit our showroom by appointment.
With regards to installations, any Quooker technician visiting sites will adhere to the following:
- Be health-screened daily
- Sanitise their hands before entering
- On-site: wear disposable gloves and masks from PPE at all times
- Immediately inform customers that precautions are to protect them as much as us
- No physical contact with anyone on site
- Maintain a ‘safe’ social distance from all people when on site, minimum two metres
- Leave the site immediately if new information becomes available that increases risk of infection
Please tell us about some of your key projects?
We have delivered full filtered water tap solutions for many corporate companies such as Jumeirah Group, Emaar, Dubai Customs, Huawei, HSBC, KPMG and others.
It’s amazing to see their efforts to go green, not only with the products and services delivered to clients, but also internally with their employees, where they provide reusable glass bottles and avoid single-plastic or plastic altogether.
We’re currently working on a large-scale project in Abu Dhabi where we will provide the client with a solution that will reduce the carbon footprint tremendously, besides an effective delivery of boiling water to also reduce the idle time while you wait for a kettle to boil when making a tea or coffee.
What’s in the pipeline?
We have recently launched the Quooker Flex in black and we’re super excited about the recent launch of the Quooker Fusion in patented brass in 2020 – it’s an art piece.
Quooker are continuously working on innovating, developing and manufacturing the latest technology. We can expect new, exciting and innovative products in the near future.
