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 Howdens Kitchens!

Overview of Howdens Kitchens – August 2024

Company Overview: Howdens Joinery is a leading UK-based supplier of kitchens, joinery, and associated products, primarily serving trade customers. Established in 1995, Howdens has grown into the UK’s number one specialist kitchen and joinery supplier, operating 840 depots across the UK (2023). The company’s trade-only model focuses on providing, in-stock products that local builders and tradespeople can access quickly and easily, supporting their needs on various projects.

Howdens offers a comprehensive range of products, including kitchens, appliances, doors, and joinery items. Their target customers are local tradespeople, particularly builders and kitchen fitters, who rely on the company’s convenient locations, competitive pricing, and extensive stock availability.

Howdens suppliers over 100 kitchen styles, ranging from traditional to modern, all manufactured in the UK with a 25-year guarantee. Their free design service uses 3D software to help trade and retail customers create tailored kitchen layouts. In addition, Howdens provides a wide range of kitchen products, including worktops, sinks, and exclusive appliances, they are happy to deal with retail clients although they will only supply prices and products to trade account holders.

In addition to its strong UK presence, Howdens has expanded into Europe with depots in France, Belgium, and the Republic of Ireland

Financial Performance: As a joinery and general building material supplier we can’t pull out the kitchen element from their last reported financial results, however the company looks in reasonable order. They do have some depots in Europe but their UK business generated a huge £895m of turnover in the first half of 2023 up 0.6% from the same period in 2022.

Customer Perception: Howdens enjoys a great customer reputation according to Trustpilot with 4.7 out of 5 stars from 63,083 reviews.

Website:

Social Media Presence:

• YouTube: 7.4k subscribers and 168 videos, featuring kitchen designs and TV style ads with one of their older videos getting over 1m views their later ones get between 15k and less than 1k. Videos are uploaded regularly.
• Instagram: 309k followers and 2,984 posts, showcasing kitchen designs and customer projects with very good interaction. They have signed up personalities to promote their showrooms and offers. A very good example of how to utilise Instagram.
• Facebook: 126k followers and 113k likes regular posts products and offers with good engagement.
• TikTok: 51.7k followers and 487k likes nice posts and great views.

Finance Offers: Howdens do not supply direct to the retail client and offer no retail finance deals.

Showroom Visit August 2024: My local depot (it’s definitely not a showroom) is on a light industrial estate with a Screwfix, Wurth and Tool Station in the nearby units.

I struggle to find a parking space, but once I do, I get out and then can’t see the depot entrance, finally I spot it next to a kitchen display that’s actually outside in the open, it’s covered in ‘special offer flags’ and it looks terrible.

I walk into the tight little trade counter area, obviously looking very lost as a lady gets up from her desk and asks me if she can help, I tell her I’m looking for a kitchen and she says ‘they have these few on display’ as she points at the only two kitchen displays in the small showroom area, one is a shaker style the other is in a handleless modern style. They are both uninspiring and look low quality. I open up a drawer which has a Blumm cover over the drawer front fixing hole.

She then says ‘we have some doors and worktop samples through here’, as she takes me through a back office area with staff working at their desks oblivious to me walking through, as the sales lady shows me a samples wall with doors and worktops. It all feels very awkward as I follow her out back into the small kitchen display area.

I ask about appliances and she tells me they can supply most but couldn’t give me prices. Their kitchen brochure shows all the brands including Neff and Miele.

I ask about prices and she says she couldn’t give me any, I point at one of the displays and ask if that one was cheaper than the other one, she said she couldn’t tell me as I was not an account holder. She said if I got my installer to come in she would give prices to them, I said ‘I don’t have an installer can you suggest one’ to which she said ‘no but there were some business cards from fitters near the trade counter’.

I ask how it works, I said I really wanted a fully fitted kitchen with everything from one place including installation. She said that they could do the design for me free of charge and deal with me upto the point of purchase, at which time, she would then deal with the installer.

I asked about warranties and guarantees, she said their kitchens came with a 25 year guarantee, I asked, ‘if Howdens do the design and the installer has issues if that design is wrong, who deals with that’, she said that’s down to the installer.

She gave me a lovely kitchen brochure along with their general catalogue (which was useless as it was unpriced) and some leaflets (which were all trade related offers).

I left feeling totally dissatisfied.

Conclusion: Although at first take and from my visit you may think Howdens is not in the same market area as Independent Kitchen Retailers with our beautiful retail friendly showrooms, our attention to detail, our expertise, our ability to offer unique products, our quality installations and turnkey solutions, there’s no doubt, Howdens is taking a large chunk of both contract and retail business and not just the bottom end, we dismiss them at our peril.

You yourself probably have an account with Howdens or at least your installers will have, giving you/them access to all of Howdens products including their kitchens, you should use this in your sales spiel as to why you don’t supply Howdens kitchens even tough you can.

It’s true that you can make even the highest quality, super expensive kitchen look trash if it’s poorly designed and/or installed and the reverse is true however this is where Howdens Achilles heel lies, they are not in control of the installation and as long as you have a Howdens account anyone can call themselves a kitchen installer.

Howdens are trying so hard to protect their trade clients that it makes the retail experience terrible which is why they rely on their trade clients to be both salesperson, installer and guarantor, which can lead to an inconsistent buying experience and disconnected experience for the retail client.

Their social media presence is excellent and they have harnessed the power of SM to project themselves as the place to go for your next kitchen, however this is not the experience you get in store.

They have a great kitchen website, however with no prices (not even relative) it’s hard for retail clients to know where they sit in terms of cost.

If you would like to discuss the flaws I’ve found and my strategies to allow you to compete as an independent please visit my website at www.cloud3.co.uk or drop me a line at terry@cloud3.co.uk or give me a call on 07747 016264.