Meet Ulrich Köhler

MEET KITCHEN INSTALLATION SPECIALIST ULRICH “ULLI” KÖHLER

“I was born in Frankfurt. It’s the only high-rise city in Germany – they call it ‘Mainhatten’. I’ve been in New Zealand for 18 years. My best friend from kindergarten moved here when I was 10. Later I returned for a working holiday, and then to stay. I was in Auckland for four years, and for the last nine I’ve lived in Wellington.

“I’m fully trained out of Germany, where I did my apprenticeship and masters degree. I trained as a master joiner at the Ebern master school in Germany, and am an associate member of Master Joiners Wellington in New Zealand.

“I’ve been in the industry since I was 17. I started in office furniture. I did a three-and-half-year apprenticeship as a joiner-carpenter. The first year of that was full-time school. My background is as cabinet maker, and I can install windows and doors, and craft high-end furniture – but my main focus is kitchen installation.

“I worked multiple times  as a kitchen manufacturing manager. Now I work fully out of the van. I don’t have a workshop, which gives me flexibility and more opportunities. Working this way means I can give reliable service and pass on large savings to clients.

“I’m extremely good at finishing detail. The goal is to finish a kitchen in x amount of days in a row and not return weeks later to finish some more missing parts of the kitchen.

“While I work across different price ranges and categories, most of my work is in the medium to top end of the market. My clients include individuals and big housing companies.

“I work on around 50 kitchens a year. I’ve personally installed more than 300 kitchens and manufactured more than 400.

“If someone has a job that requires manufacturing components to fit a specific space, I will recommend a kitchen designer to them. I have a number of trusted suppliers I work with and am happy to suggest a kitchen manufacturer.

“Most of my clients want me on hourly rate because quality is more important to them than rushing the job.”