Mission creep | SHOPFLOOR ANALYSIS
Mitch Burton, director at Portrait Kitchens, explains:
“We will only do the work required to replace a kitchen – rip out the old, plumbing, plastering, electrics, and then installation – along with painting and decorating if required. Before opening Portrait Kitchens, I worked at another showroom that would get involved with taking down walls, fitting new windows etc. This often led to much longer project running times and, with very little margin to cover project management and site visits, the kitchen designer would often be left as acting
project
manager and the go-between of the various building trades and the clients. “The company’s outlook was that doing the extra work brought in more business and helped win jobs. I think it put the kitchen salesperson in an unnecessary position and took their focus away from designing, selling and managing kitchen projects.”
Worth the risk?
Mitch Burton continues: “I just tell people we’re not a building company and don’t have the experience or insurance to take this on ‘in house’. There are several local builders we can recommend and we are happy to meet with both parties to do introductions and run through the details. We will be there for any support along the way and will communicate directly with the builder to keep an eye on the schedule and when we’re needed to do what we specialise in – the kitchen.” Trevor Scott, CEO at Rugby Fitted Kitchens, also refers to the difficulty managing a project when dealing with other contractors. “We always want to maintain control,” Scott says. “As soon as a third-party gets involved (such as builders) then it can delay the taking of orders, as
they are waiting for quotes and start dates, so during the delivery of the project, we don’t have control of the timeline and project management. “Therefore, we will take on structural building works, like an RSJ, but we don’t do decoration because there’s not much money in it, it’s not crucial to the sale and, rather like bespoke glass splashbacks, it can delay final payments.” With many KBB retailers including the word interiors in their name, is there an expectation from customers that they will offer decoration and lighting, etc? “We try and sell the whole package and lighting is added to the products we sell in the showroom, so we’ve
called the new showroom Amy Jane
Bathrooms and Interiors,” explains Julie James, showroom manager at Plumbits Stafford. “That said, we brand ourselves as a bathroom specialist and I feel you can only be strong in your own specialist field. If we expanded beyond our specialist areas, would our clients’ expectations be met? We could do an amazing bathroom but if, for example, we included windows in the design and they didn’t fit with the ‘wow factor’, the overall view of the project could be ruined by a negative review of the window fitting.”
Up to you Interestingly a number of
kitchen and bathroom
retailers were started by people and businesses in adjoining industries and so introduce their own mission creep into KBB. The first industry company I worked for – kitchen specialists Spillers of Chard – had morphed out of a family builders merchant. I became director of a KBB specialist called Arcot Interiors that had evolved from a maintenance business, while kitchens and interiors brand Neptune
We do the full service, including decorating, fitting windows etc. It’s the only way to compete these days
Steve Root, director, Roots KBB
began as a cottage industry making hammocks. There are also many businesses that have been built by trade specialists who’ve developed a penchant for KBB design.
In order to get some insight, I spoke to the owners and driving forces behind two such businesses – Kris Tolbod of Premiere Klasse and Depend-On building services, and Steven and Koralia Hume of Quarrybank Boutique and Quarrybank Plumbers, about their unique experiences in the sector. Commenting from a Premiere Klasse perspective,
Tolbod said: “We do all building work up to and including building an entire house. Both businesses help to feed the other. For example, we recently won a multimillion-pound single-home building project, which includes around £500k of kitchen and bathroom products.” He went on to explain how his years working across the trades means that he can quickly and efficiently cost a job.
The Humes explain that at their bathroom showroom, they offer a Silver and Gold installation package to their clients, with the former a standard installation overseen by the installer, but the latter a fully project-managed service with an extended guarantee, and both decoration and a boiler service included. Interestingly they too are looking to expand their offering by adding solar and PV to their range of services in the coming months. To avoid troublesome mission creep, it’s up to you where you draw the line. Just make sure that you are comfortable with it.
Root offers some sound advice: “Whether you take on jobs outside your specialism depends on how aggressive you want to be in the market. But I would warn that it can be a distraction.” I would also like to add that the greater variety of work you take on, the more you will learn along the way; but you need to be willing to sometimes learn the hard way.
December 2023 •
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