THE KBBREVIEW INTERVIEW | Dominic Worsley
CDA’s EXG90BL 900mm chimney cooker hood features touch and gesture control
about it. People are more understanding about supply, so whether you adjust your forecast to reflect the risk or lengthen lead times to secure the stock, there’s things you can do. If you have those three things – communication, honesty, and agility – you can offset the worst effects of supply issues.
Q: What have you learnt personally from the last two Covid years? A: I learned that we can be much more flexible in our approach about where we work and where people produce their best work.
That doesn’t mean just being at home all the time because lots of people struggle with that. It’s very different for a homeowner sitting in a large house with their own office and a graduate in their small bedroom finding it hard to find a quiet
space. I think we need to
understand the whole well-being around people. From a business point of view, we had to watch our cash flow to pay salaries and suppliers. We tried to help people out with extended credit. There was a spirit about Covid that brought out the best in some companies, and some not so much. There’s been a fundamental shift in the way we work and we’re only just beginning to understand that. We need to be open-minded and look outside what we’re expected to do. People are now challenging the status quo and have shown incredible resourcefulness. Those are the things we want to keep after Covid. So, it’s lots of little things I’ve learnt, not one overwhelmingly
big thing. They say change
creates opportunity and I think some of those opportunities are still revealing themselves to us.
steam. What I love about CDA is we can make these sorts of things accessible, so it’s not just for the few that can afford it. Covid lockdowns made us go from a country that liked watching cooking programmes to getting in the kitchen and doing it ourselves a lot more. We can help people explore those enthusiasms.
CDA also has a flexible hinge dishwasher coming out, which is in response to feedback from designers and fitters. It’s quieter and more sustainable – something that we’re finding people are asking about more frequently. We’re picking up on design trends and we’re seeing this desire for personalisation. I spent some time with a company that does cladding for the outside of houses and this business of wanting to personalise your property. I think it’s something that we can look at in MDA. Quite frankly, you could get a bank of ovens, take all the brand names off and you’ll probably struggle to tell them apart. It’s giving us ideas about how we could bring that to life.
Q: It’s one thing to have innovative products, but that means very little to retailers if there is no stock. What strategy has CDA implemented to deal with any supply issues and maintain service levels? A: Our levels have been good — partly because we had delayed orders that happened to arrive and partly because of brilliant forecasting. We hold great stocks, but we really have spent a lot of time enhancing our forecasting process. If that’s not accurate, you’re never going to be on top of demand. We’re looking good stock-wise, so if anyone needs an oven, give us a call.
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Q: Why do you think communication around supply is so hard to get right? A: When you have lots of product coming from different places around the world, you don’t have systems that are talking to each other well. I think it all comes down to understanding the UK market and how it’s unique. Compare it to Germany, where it’s a big replacement market. When you rent a flat there, you sort the kitchen out yourself, so everything is replacement. But here we have all these individual kitchen showrooms that need product at the time of asking to fit the product on the right day. It’s making sure you have that understanding so you can communicate with customers honestly and as early as possible. You can’t tell a customer that the delivery due next week is coming in six weeks instead. Of course, some things are totally out of your control, but you have to be honest
By all means, sell direct but don’t forget that you’re relying on independents to introduce people to the brand
Q: What is the one piece of personal advice you’ve received that has stuck with you? A: One piece of advice that has always stuck with me is from a time when I worked for Disney. We launched ‘High School Musical’ and we managed to agree a sponsorship deal with Argos
where we got the premiere date advertised in 17
million catalogues. As a result, we got lots of product in for our licensees. It was a big win, and no one had done anything like that before.
When I went back to my boss, he asked with a half-smile, ‘How many households are there in the UK?’ I told him there were 27 million. He then asked about the other 10 million and how I could reach them next time. So, I’ve learnt that when you do something well, celebrate it, but then ask yourself how you can build on that and how you push your success. It’s that constant quest of improving yourself.
Q: What next for CDA? What’s exciting you about the next 12 months? A: We’ll be consolidating some of the changes we’ve made, both internally and externally. We want to build the brand by making a virtue of the fact that we are agile, that we are British design for the UK market, and really building that relationship with the kitchen retail channel. We have growth plans for that channel built on having a direct service team and aftercare sales. We’re even offering same-day service, so it’s a fantastic foundation for us to build our kitchen retail channel.
· June 2022
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