As Independent Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom showrooms we sometimes find it difficult to get out and check out the competition. In this series of posts I want to do this for you, taking an in-depth look at the national retailers that, whether we like it or not, are taking a lot of our customers money and attention. These companies have huge marketing budgets along with a high profile national presence which makes it hard for us to compete. If you are an independent KBB retailer and you need help to stand out with your marketing, online or traditional, please contact me today I’d love to help. terry@cloud3.co.uk 07747 016264

OK let’s take a look at Easy Bathrooms!

Easy Bathrooms, a subsidiary of Cubico Group Limited, is a prominent UK-based retailer specialising in bathroom and tile products. The company was incorporated on 25 August 2016 and is headquartered in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The company has positioned itself as a major player in the home improvement sector, offering an extensive range of bathroom suites, furniture, tiles, and accessories all available with installation if required. They cater to both individual consumers and trade professionals, making Easy Bathrooms a competitor and disrupter to both traditional retailers and trade suppliers alike.

Financially, Easy Bathrooms has shown substantial growth. For the financial year ending February 2023, the company reported a turnover of approximately £100 million. This impressive financial performance underscores its strong market presence and the effectiveness of its business strategies in a very competitive sector.

Easy Bathrooms operates over 140 showrooms across the UK, which play a crucial role in their business model. These showrooms allow customers to physically examine products before making purchases. The extensive showroom network also helps the company maintain a strong physical presence, meaning there’s probably one of their showrooms near your business!

Cubico Group Limited, the parent company, has been strategically expanding Easy Bathrooms’ operations to solidify its market position. The group’s focus on both retail and trade markets with a heavy emphasis on highly visible retail park showroom presence along with strong marketing mainly through paid for Google search ads and social marketing.

After visiting a couple of their showrooms my view is that they offer a very clean modern retail friendly environment. Their in-store displays consist of complete bathroom and shower areas all tiled and dressed with a good mix of sizes and style options to cater for different size areas and configurations.

The experience was very similar in both the two showrooms I visited they had the same staff numbers in both showrooms, and I was never approached by either of the two ‘designers’ situated behind desks to the side of the showroom entrance.

In the first showroom, out of courtesy I went over and asked if I could take some photos of the displays to which they had no problem, they did ask if I needed any help and I said I was OK. I acted as a mystery shopper just starting out to get ideas for a new bathroom.

I had free range to do as I liked in the showroom and they even said I could sit in the baths if I wished (to try them out).

All the displays were totally complete, I didn’t see a missing basin mixer, toilet seat or waste and the all the furniture drawers were clear and clean, there were no brochures or leaflets anywhere but each display was clearly priced with a retail price and any special offer price and all included VAT.

Every display showed a ‘fitted price’ however, looking closer this was a 5 year 9.9% APR financed price and was based on a £14,000 fully supplied and fitted bathroom and was not an exact price for the display shown. They offer 2 years finance at 0% interest through V12 Retail Finance.

On the way out I spoke to one of the designers and asked how I could move forward, he said that the best thing to do was to ‘take this brochure’ (he handed me a 320 page nicely printed catalogue which I assume they print twice a year as it was marked Spring/Summer 2024) the catalogue mirrored the displays in the showroom including the tiling and was priced and coded and also showed the special offers that were instore. He then said I should measure my bathrooms then come back in and they would do a design. I asked if he could show me something he was designing on the computer at that moment and he showed me a couple of really impressive photo realistic renders fully tiled and dressed, I tried to see what CAD package they were using but I couldn’t, but it wasn’t Virtual Worlds or any of the Compusoft packages that I could recognise.

I asked if it would be possible to get someone to visit my home to do the measure, as I live some 30 miles from this showroom? He said this was not a problem and he could get a colleague from my local store to do it free of charge.

They did have a sign in the showroom that said they supplied ‘Top Brands’ however when I asked him about Hansgrohe he said that they couldn’t supply that and that Hansgrohe was a bit above their product ranges. It appears that they only supply their own OEM brands and products.

I asked about delivery and fitting and they suggested delivery would be within a week and fitting around 6-8 weeks once the order was finalised. Their installation team is subcontracted but they work exclusively for Easy Bathrooms and all invoicing and warranty claims are via Easy Bathrooms. There is no charge for delivery, and they give a 10 year guarantee on most products and a 2 year guarantee on installation workmanship.

My overall impression of the showroom is that it was very functional and clean with nice ideas if a little bland and not exactly cutting edge. The whole showroom felt a little uninspiring and lifeless, it didn’t help that I was one of only 3 customers in the showroom at the time although this was mid-week at lunchtime in the middle of the summer.

Along with their comprehensive brochure they have a simple to navigate website/online shop but it feels very much like a Screwfix or any of the identikit webshops you get today selling individual items rather than a full bathroom.

They have pretty good reviews on Trustpilot with 77% 5 star and 10% 1 star out of over 7,000 reviews.

They have 54k followers on Instagram although not much interaction from those followers although they have been tagged by some of their installers which have garnered interest.

They have a YouTube channel with just 24 videos in 8 years with 3k subscribers but not much interaction.

They spend a lot of money on PPC and have targeted most areas for sponsored search.

So that’s Easy Bathrooms, they do have weaknesses that we can exploit as independents and I’d love to chat with you about this so please visit my website at www.cloud3.co.uk or drop me a line at terry@cloud3.co.uk

DOWNLOAD EASY BATHROOMS BROCHURE HERE