Mek thanks for the feedback.
To be honest I don't know where the laminates Poggenpohl use come from - Renomart might be able to enlighten us more on that one.
BUT...from looking at their colour/material listings (they don't provide any Product Data Sheets) I would assume that their fine grained melamine and gloss laminates are of the same standard as the higher end local products, e.g. Diamondgloss, Crea AR+...there are a few other hard wearing high gloss laminates around.
As I believe was discussed on this forum a few years ago (you might remember when... '06ish) it is about specification and build quality that really make these kitchens stand out - and that is equally achievable using a local manufacturer and local materials (I believe that there are only a handful of actual high volume laminate factories in the world [excluding China] anyway, they are just selling it to different brands), but one still has to be prepared to pay for it as the market is geared for high volume mid range production and if a cabinetmaker goes away from that path to build a high end kitchen he/she needs to get paid for it.
Anyway, what about that stainless kitchen you were going to get me to do for you?
Cheers,
Earl