CHICAGO— Love Cooking Company has formed a new collaboration with “Hell’s Kitchen,” a competitive cooking style television show on Fox featuring chef Gordon Ramsay. The licensed housewares line will be showcased at the International Home + Housewares Show, here, and is set to hit the market in the first quarter of 2018.
Love Cooking has been tapped to design and distribute a complete line of housewares carrying the brand, including cookware, cutlery, meal prep, textiles, ceramic oven-to-table, gadgets, and accessories— all integrated together with a “Hell’s Kitchen” logo and motif.
“As with our other brands, our ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ line will be developed from the ground up to encapsulate the look, feel, and vision of our brand partner,” said Scott Nicholson, president, Love Cooking Company. “There is brand recognition and enthusiasm across every generation with this show. And, right now, there are a lot of cooking enthusiasts that we are hoping to bring into the world of ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’” he noted.
Nicholson explained that the brand brings a level of edginess and seriousness to the kitchen, but not intimidation— something he is hoping will come across in the development of the housewares line.
“We are hoping that it will help people step out of their comfort zone in the kitchen with confidence,” he explained.
An added feature to the “Hell’s Kitchen” line of housewares will be the connection that consumers will be able to capitalize on after they leave the store.
“The ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ home chef will have access to unique QR codes and dedicated interactive websites that will keep them connected to a vibrant community of chefs where they can share their own recipes and creative prep and cooking techniques,” said Nicholson.
Nicholson also said that the new line will be equipped to allow consumers to tap into increased social media connections, something he hopes will create a community around the housewares collection.
“We are going to have a whole media play. They have a YouTube channel that we are going to drive content and recipes to. We are going to be building a social media environment that is going to be connected to the chefs on the show,” he said.
The new license has also taken Love Cooking closer to a new market position as a vertically integrated, solutions-based housewares company.
“Up until recently, we were mainly a bakeware company,” said Nicholson. “However, now we can bring retailers complete packages. We can create designs for them or use designs they have and can do it across multiple channels,” he added.
Nicholson explained that by Love Cooking being the conduit for these types of programs, retailers can count on complete merchandising programs that will showcase strong branding— whether a well-known brand or private label— because all of the companies will be working off of the same specifications for design.
“Everything is going to match. It’s going to look the same and it’s on one purchase order,” he said.
Love Cooking recently debuted its Harry & David licensed housewares line, which was its first major multiple category brand. That collection includes bakeware, serveware, barbecue items and home textiles, which will range from tablecloths and kitchen towels to decorative pillows.
“We are continuing our quest to always innovate, but we now have power brands behind us and have expanded into more diverse categories, with products that we can sell year round,” said Nicholson. L
