Retailer round table | ANALYSIS
getting them to really understand the customer’s budget and design to that figure with the must-haves rather than over-design with all the nice-to-haves and disappoint them with a kitchen they can’t afford. The challenge there is that we are having to temper enthusiasm among our designers.
JM: Customers are led by social media so much these days too. They’re seeing all these fantastic, innovative products and design ideas
but, because they either
haven’t bought a kitchen before or not bought one for a while, they just have no idea where they sit in the marketplace. Whether it’s a vented hob, or a boiling water tap or tap that delivers chilled or sparkling water, they want it all. The challenge is not just fitting that into a space, it’s fitting it all into budgets.
TS: The requirements are the same, the expectations are the same, but the budget is now very stretched, and this is the sticking point. We’re having to deliver a kitchen package that is now costing 10% to 20% more than it was two years ago, but for a customer that is now tighter on cash than they were two years ago as well, there’s a real adjustment required on what we’re having to do as designers.
JM: What we’re finding too – and what’s making it so difficult to navigate – is that with squeezed budgets, there’s very little room for compromise from the customer. It’s like playing a game of Tetris. They want it all so for us the challenge is which area of the kitchen takes the squeeze? That’s why we’ve got so many different brands and price points to try and accommodate that. If they really want all these
August 2023 •
innovative appliances or a specific worktop,
what we’re doing is
educating them that maybe it’s the brand that changes? We’re giving the options that allow them to consider going down from say Bentley to Mercedes. That’s how we’re tackling it.
QUESTION 3:
How open to compromise are the customers in this scenario?
TS: The conversations we’re having at least, show that our customers understand that prices have gone up but actually they are open to compromise, so we can guide them to alternatives that offer quality but at a different price point. We’ve got options out there, but the challenge is that even last year there wasn’t such a squeeze.
PM: Because we have multiple showrooms, we have to develop standards. So now, as a standard, we give three quotations – a good, better and best option based around their budget. We’ve also created good, better and best packages across all of our product categories to make it as easy as possible for our designers to address the budget squeeze and still enable them to meet the needs of the customer.
JM: As a small business, we just don’t have the luxury of designing kitchens all day long. The reality of running a small business is that design is just one aspect of the
day-to-day. We’re also involved in project management, the accounts, entertaining customers, etc. There are lots of challenges for a small family-run business.
QUESTION 4:
Considering this squeeze on budgets and the changing consumer, how much competition are the multiples to your business right now?
TS: There is plenty of competition in our area and everyone does a great
offering
job – they’ve that
suits all got an their market.
We’re not like London in the sense that we have showrooms every 10 metres – our closest showroom is probably about 15 miles away – but people tend to travel more in this part of the country. There are other independents offering German kitchens like us, then there are independents with a more British kitchen offering and the national chains as well. The key is service. People will come to us if we’re delivering fantastic products with a level
of service the expect and appreciate.
PM: Our main competition is with the national chains and indepen- dents but also a lot of inde -
customers
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