Manufacturers in the industry know full well that bathroom furnishings enjoy an extremely long life cycle. So it makes economic sense to focus on this circumstance, like this Westphalian firm has, and produce only durable products. The company name is composed of the first letters of the name of Paul Keune, who in the early 1950s founded a metalworking operation in the centre of the German fittings industry. Just a decade later, he was already specializing in high-grade accessories for the bathroom, a decision that would prove to be a prescient one. Following a period of rapid expansion, the company, which today boasts the most advanced goods distribution centre in the industry, developed into the international market leader for bathroom fittings. As customers increasingly came to demand harmonious furnishing concepts, co-operations with manufacturers like Villeroy & Boch and Grohe were initiated. After acquiring a manufacturer of mirrored cabinets and a kitchen and bathroom furniture-maker,
however, the company was finally in a position to offer its own brand of complete bathroom ensembles. Keuco already began working with Luigi Colani in the 1970s, the maverick who was at the time in the process of revolutionizing modern German design for living virtually single-handedly. Projects with what are as a rule somewhat less eccentric creative talents are today an integral component of the corporate strategy. The results can definitely stand up to comparison with brands such as Erco or FSB, although the Sauerland-based company does not make much ado about the fact that it can boast an aboveaverage design culture. Keeping the names of the designers behind the products anonymous is likewise part of a strategy in which everything is subordinated to the high profile of the brand itself. The extraordinarily fruitful, nearly two-decade long relationship with the office of Reiner Moll is thus largely known only to insiders. The collaboration has resulted in bestsellers such as the Alea series and the minimalist Plan program, probably the most comprehensive of its kind. The Keuco-Moll team has always been a source of innovative precedents, whether in the case of Aquamove, the world’s first hydraulically adjustable showerhead, or Bella Vista, an LED-lit cosmetic mirror that casts a sometimes shockingly honest light on what it reflects.