Daniel J SaitEI recently made an exclusive trip to the impressive HQ of Niko. Check out part two of this journey inside the workings of one of Europe’s most pioneering smart home manufacturers.
Check out part one of this interview here.
With its company HQ and factory located in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium and further offices in Antwerp, the company carries out its extensive production, research and development, sales and customer services operations, so there was much for EI to learn. Niko has a long history in the electrical and smart home worlds with a footprint covering its home country of Belgium, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. With over 700 employees creating and supporting more than 5,000 products for residential and professional settings, Niko has an impressive range of solutions for installers, including attractive control points, switches and sensors all linked to the maker’s Niko Home Control platform. Niko has big plans for the future including growing its presence in the UK and attendance at EI Live! 2025. In part two of this series we delve further into the product concepts and design approaches that make the company unique.
Peter Vehent, Head of Product Marketing Residential and Eric De Clercq, Sales and Marketing Manager, sat down with EI to provide an insight into how Niko actually designs and creates the products that meet the needs of the modern smart home market.
Check out the video version of this interview below.
Peter Vehent (right), Head of Product Marketing Residential and Eric De Clercq, Sales & Marketing Manager, speak with EI Editor Daniel J Sait
Peter begins, “We know that integrators face a lot of problems such as project complexity and high expectations of the market. We listen to those guys to find out what their problems are and what they need. So, then we bring that back to the internal team here and we try to find solutions that fit those needs.
“We have creativity sessions to define new solutions, some crazy stuff, some more basic and then start the process to build towards creating a prototype. We evaluate in a regular and repetitive way, getting more feedback along the way to improve things still further until the product becomes more mature and is ready for the next phase. This is how we evaluate and evolve products to get them finally to a detailed design together with the whole design team, the UX team and then finally we get to production.”
Learning what the market wants
Peter explains, “We try to make it exciting and have some fun with it. We call it co-development, we sometimes invite customers over here to have discussions with us. And then we start experimenting with ideas using our whiteboards and other planning tools, as well as getting creative feedback from dealers.
“In the end our credo is that we want to make things simple. Which means there is probably a basic problem somewhere that needs fixing and we try to find the most simple solution to fix that problem because complexity is everywhere. In everyday life there are a lot of interactions with things like smartphones. We want to avoid this and we know our customers, both the professional and the end customer, are not in favour of having complexity, so we aim to create simple, elegant solutions.”
Eric adds, “Ultimately, it’s about decluttering life and providing peace of mind. A smart home does not need to be present that much, the system should just be there for people when it is needed and when it is useful.”
A visit to Niko provides a really deep dive into how the company develops its solutions
Peter continues, “There are some people who are technology lovers. They really like to have fancy stuff on the wall and lots of things flickering around, but the majority don’t want this, but still they want to have comfort. Feeling safe at home and having a reduced energy bill for instance, are daily needs. So, we really try to deliver on the core needs of the homeowner.”
Energy efficiency is of course a big issue in the market and will only grow in importance, which is something Niko recognises.
Peter reveals, “We know from being a Belgian company that the energy market is a big thing. The energy providers have a lot of issues to deal with, but on the other side they burden people with increasingly high energy bills. So, people feel discomfort thinking they are going to have to pay too much, so we need a solution. “We actually knew this from the beginning of smart home control, so we embedded energy measurement and monitoring into the systems. In fact, we can call what our system does energy management in that it automates and optimises the use of energy and creates the highest level of self-consumption and efficiency, if you have solar panels, for instance.”
Eric underlines that these goals should be delivered without compromise on performance, “People don’t want to lose comfort, they don’t want to achieve better energy consumption simply by turning down the heating by five degrees because of the energy bill. They want a system that works together with them on how to balance energy production and that’s exactly what Niko Home Control does.”
The importance of this area is only going to grow, which is something that Niko is planning for.
Peter insists, “This is not going to go away. The evolution in energy will continue with batteries, solar, EV charging and other systems becoming a big part of our lives more and more, so we will follow this trend and try to deliver the solutions.”
Niko Rocker combines classic design and cutting-edge smart technology
Key products and platforms
The team were also keen to talk about what they feel key products and deliverables are from the Niko range right now.
Peter emphasises, “Next to technical stuff like energy management, we are a company that focuses on premium interfaces because we believe that the end user in their home should be very much at ease. It should be very simple to switch on the light, to lower the blinds, or to do whatever you want without very fancy, complicated interfaces.
“So one of the latest new developments is our Niko Toggle and Rocker for Niko Home Control variant. Already available to the market in a 230V variant since 2024, this is an authentic vintage switch, now with integrated Niko Home Control as a direct interface. The difference between this switch and the first classic switches is that this new one has a more subtle and tactile feeling. It does not have a long travel and hard click, instead it is really simple and has more refined tactile feedback. On top of that, we have integrated a temperature and humidity sensor with a lot of flexibility directly into the switch, so you can create heating, cooling or ventilation control with the same sophisticated look and feel.”
Eric underlines, “This is a nice link to our legacy of design as a company. The switch in fact references a switch we made in 1958. So almost 70 years ago we developed a switch that has been around in a lot of houses, but now we have a nice contemporary product that is smart.”
Being able to call on this type of classic design is very important to Niko.
Eric continues, “It is a special aspect of the company because you don’t change your switch on the wall that many times. It’s not like drinking Coca-Cola every week. It is a once or twice in a lifetime decision for homeowners when they install these products. So, it’s up to us as a supplier to think about timeless design and to bring to market products that genuinely last a lifetime.”
Niko Toggle will be on show at EI Live! 2025
UK Market Development And EI Live! 2025
Niko’s ambition is to continue to develop its brand presence in the UK, as Peter explains, “Internationally, we want to focus on the more premium high-end market because we clearly see that there will be an opportunity for integrators having a very simple and flexible infrastructure that is capable of integrating with all kinds of verticals.
“So, reaching out to different disciplines such as smart home, AV or HVAC-focused installers, who will be able to combine all these things to one smart home – created and controlled over one interface – we feel will be attractive. This is the way we want to develop in the UK market. Within a few years we aim to be an established brand delivering on our core values.”
Shortly installers will have the opportunity to interact with Niko at EI Live! 2025, so what can visitors expect?
Peter enthuses, “Well, we’re very excited to be there for the first time. We want to bring our whole story, starting from, who is Niko? We have been in existence since 1919, so we are a very well-established brand. We know what switches and sockets are, we know what home automation is since we have been operating in that market since 1997. So, we are going to bring a portfolio that explains who Niko is as well as what our current solutions are. We will also explain which partners we integrate with and what solutions we can bring to deliver a high level of comfort, safety and energy efficiency. We will put emphasis on our energy efficiency capabilities and the premium interfaces including Niko Toggle and Rocker. We are also going to have a live demo on how to configure and how to program Niko. So we are going to show and have live interactions with the visitors just as we do at company HQ.”
Niko can be found on Stand 65. Organisers also recently announced the exciting news that Niko is the lead sponsor for the Smart Building Awards this year. Niko staff will be on hand during the Smart Building Awards as well as at EI Live!. Visitors to the show and those attending the awards will be able to interact with Niko staff and learn more about the brand.
