The UK fitted kitchen market is worth some £4.4 billion*. Although national kitchen retailers take a significant market share, at the higher end of the market it is independent retailers that dominate.
There are some online kitchen furniture retailers, but the vast majority of kitchen sales are made in bricks and mortar showrooms. In addition to the huge sales opportunity, fitted kitchens also offer a great ROI with excellent margin potential.
Successfully selling kitchen furniture takes more than simply displaying a few kitchen units. Customers expect a full design and installation service, as well as a wide choice of the latest kitchen colours and materials. There are also the additional products that make up the kitchen, such as sinks, taps, worktops, lighting and of course appliances.
To effectively enter this market, you need space to display some kitchen layouts, a dedicated member of staff who can deal with any enquiries and a kitchen design service. Additionally, you will need a sub-contract kitchen fitting team, a marketing strategy to let your local customers know that you now sell kitchens and patience, as it may take some time before you start to see a return on your investment.
Although this sounds daunting, for the independent electrical retailer, a move into selling fitted kitchen furniture is a seamless fit. Entering the kitchen furniture market with the confidence that it will be a successful business venture can be accomplished by taking advantage of the unique help and support available from the Kitchen Bathroom Buying Group (KBBG).
The KBBG is an organisation set up to support independent kitchen and bathroom specialists and is part of the renowned DER KREIS, Europe’s leading kitchen and bathroom buying group. The group provides a range of exclusive, tailored benefits and services in order to support independent retailers by giving business advice, improving margins and giving access to products, allowing members to stay ahead of the competition and achieve their full business potential.
Selling kitchens gives independent electrical retailers a great opportunity to expand their business into an area of retailing that is complementary to their current business and can significantly help improve margins.
In addition to furniture sales, kitchens are a great way to sell more high value, premium appliances, as well as ancillary products such as boiling water taps. Displaying high end appliances and optional extras in a kitchen setting creates a far better impression, rather than showing them in the traditional appliance display modules that are common in an electrical retailer’s showroom.
Most fitted kitchen furniture sales are completed in traditional bricks and mortar showrooms, and this means an independent electrical retailer’s showroom can become an ideal place for consumers to buy a kitchen. However, selling kitchens requires several specialised skills such as CAD design, project management and access to experienced kitchen installers. Through its kitchen support package, the KBBG has viable solutions to help electrical retailers with the transition from only selling appliances to successfully adding sales of kitchen furniture to their portfolio.
The KBBG kitchen support package includes preferential rates for kitchen design training, access to two leading CAD systems from ArtiCAD or Compusoft, and the best buying conditions from selected kitchen furniture suppliers. Additionally, electrical retailers will also have access to approved kitchen installers, as well as specialist kitchen warehousing and distribution. KBBG therefore provides the necessary tools for independent electrical retailers to successfully, and confidently, make the transition into retailing fitted kitchens.
The KBBG’s aim is very simple; to ensure independent electrical retailers achieve their full business potential and have a sustainable future.
“We have been selling white goods for over 35 years, and we have been looking for the next step we could take to expand our business further,” comments Ellis Parkinson from Aspull Domestic, Wigan. “The support we have received from KBBG (DER KREIS) has given us so much success of being in the kitchen industry, and without DER KREIS things wouldn’t have been as easy to take the first step into the kitchen business.
“The complete package offered by DER KREIS is exactly what we were looking for. We are selling around two to three kitchens a week and our business is expanding rapidly.”
For more information on the KBBG, email info@derkreis.co.uk or phone 02382 021348.
*: Trend-Monitor Kitchen Report 2020
