Appliance supply update | ANALYSIS


APPLIANCE SUPPLY CHAIN:


I


f you had told a retailer back in the pre-Covid days that they might end up waiting six months or longer for appliances and fitting kitchens that could be missing an oven for a matter of months, they would surely have thought you mad.


But that is the reality that kitchen studios have been dealing with over the past three years. Covid hit Chinese production of semiconductors hard and closed, or reduced capacity at, many factories. Then there was an unprecedented upswing in consumers investing in


November 2022 ·


their homes, including kitchens. While we can’t pretend that all is well just yet, the good news is, though, that there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. In the retailer survey we carried out for this update, 28% said they felt the situation was getting better, 44% thought


it was


about the same and only 28% thought it was getting worse. That was also the view expressed by Darren Taylor, MD of Searle and Taylor in


28%


of retailers said things were getting better


Winchester, in a recent kbbreview Podcast. He said: “Things are improving and consumer demand is certainly tailing off and so they are able to catch up a bit more, and chips or whatever it is, are starting to come through. I personally think we are over the worst of it.”


Although there are indeed signs of things improving, given the long lead times that kitchen retailers would typically work to any- way, there is still going


Are things getting better or worse?


The aftermath of Covid has left the MDA supply chain in tatters. And while there are glimmers of hope that things are improving, many retailers are still quoting project lead times of six months and many are still waiting for substantial final payments for projects still missing appliances. Chris Frankland gets the latest from retailers and manufacturers


to be a period where legacy problems will cause knock-on delays for a while to come yet before things eventually settle down.


Many manufacturers are also reporting that things are getting better, but before we hear from them, what else did our retailer poll tell us? Well, some shocking statistics emerged. We asked retailers what kind of lead times they are currently quoting to clients for complete kitchens because of appliance shortages. Almost half (49%) said four to six months, with 42% saying six months or longer and. Only 14% reported leads times as


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