kbbreview Retailer Survey 2022 | ANALYSIS


taken on even more significance as the first since covid began.


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This backdrop means it seems more fitting than ever for us to take another qualitative snapshot of where retailers are in their business, carrying on from the same surveys ahead of the 2018 and 2020 events. What’s changed? What effect has Covid had on business? How confident are retailers feeling? And how has the unprecedented high demand helped and hindered their plans?


This is a fascinating snapshot of a representative 300 retailers from across the UK conducted in November 2021.


he kbb show in Birmingham is fast approaching and while it’s always a huge UK industry event, this year has


What is your average 89%


Retailers who rated their business health as good or excellent


What is the current


health of your business? This must surely be one of the most important questions for any business owner given the turmoil of the last two years. It’s not quite over yet, but we know we’re past the worst so have you come out of it okay? Maybe you’ve even grown or had a record period? We asked our retailers to rate the current health of their business from their perspective and the results are conclusive — we’re all doing okay! In fact, a whopping 89% of retailers rated the health of their business as good or excellent, and that’s up from three-quarters in 2020. In a little more detail, 40% of kitchen retailers and 50% of bathroom retailers said it was ‘excellent’. The other 11% said it was ‘average’ which means no one thought their business was below that. Comparing that health to 12 months ago, as


we hit the second lockdown at the height of demand, nearly a quarter (23%) of retailers said their business was ‘significantly up’ and 44% said it was ‘better’ or ‘much better’. So that means 67% said it was better or above, compared to 50% in 2019 and 60% in 2017. In 2019, 20% of retailers said business was down, that number is now just 8%.


project worth? We asked our retailers what their average order value is, looking for any evidence that may indicate a shift in the mid-market. Considering the years the surveys cover - 2017, 2019 and now 2021 — and all the upheaval these have seen through Brexit and Covid, this is an incredibly consistent area and very little has changed. For 2021, just under half of kitchens are between £20,000 and £40,000 and 16% of kitchens are over £40,000. This means that, surprisingly given the market, nearly a third are between £10,000 and £20,000. Budgets for bathrooms remain much lower of course, with two-fifths under £10,000 and half between £10,000 and £20,000. So while little has changed, what’s fascinating about these numbers is that, overall 77% of retailers say their order value has gone up or significantly up in the last 12 months and just 18% say it has stayed the same.


Exactly 60% of retailers have order books between two and four months, however this is


Where is the growth?


If business is booming, which it clearly is, then it’s no shock that 40% of retailers see their growth as organic — up from 30% in 2019.This natural expansion continues in to the project cost too, with nearly a quarter of kitchen retailers seeing growth in higher value projects, an area which jumps up to 40% for bathrooms.


One minor change that is something to watch in the future is a marginal increase in bathroom retailers seeing online sales as an area of growth — up from 2% in 2019 to 10% this year...


77%


Retailers who said average order value has gone up


actually a drop from 2019 when that was 79%. The overall graph has shifted up though, in 2019 20% had orders just one or two months ahead, that has fallen to 14% and five months or above now counts for 34%.


40%


Retailers that see organic growth as their best option


29%


Retailers whose projects are only installed by their own fitters


January 2022 · Who are your fitters?


The shortage of fitters and installers has been a major issue throughout this period of high demand and it’s no surprise that most kitchens and bathrooms designed by retailers are fitted by a mix of their own fitters and subcontractors. Just over twice as many kitchen retailers as bathrooms use their own fitters (34% vs 15%) and, in fact, this also correlates with the other biggest difference between the two sectors — supply only. This counts for nearly a third of bathroom fits (30%) against just 4% of kitchens.


Overall, the number of retailers employing their own fitters to do 100% of their project has fallen by nearly 10% from 38% to 29%.


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