MANUFACTURER PROFILE | Kudos


Mark Hill on… Joining Kudos


growth based on its


Kudos has massive potential to achieve quality


of product and


customer service. That, coupled with the enthusiasm and pride of the main board and, of course, the great location, was irresistible.


Strategy Previously, we had two trade manufacturing


sites – one here and one in Coleraine. We’ve moved all that over to Coleraine and now have a warehouse for fi nished goods over here. It increases our capacity and fl exibility.


Investment It’s managing your working capital, your


supply chain, your procurement activities. Any improvement in that area generates cash and we’re investing in the business. But the biggest investment has been in the people – some new to the industry and some not.


1.


listening to our customers. It’s not just Nick and Bruce saying we need to design this and that.” As we tour the factory, the improvements are immediately obvious. Booth points to the revamped Ultimate 2 line: “About 55% of our business comes from this line,” he reveals. “We can now get 1,400 units out a week just from these two cells. It’s all about the fl ow, we’ll get it as tight as we can. The effi ciencies make a massive difference. The fi rst thing I wanted to change was the cell operation. What this place allows us to do is store by size and range and it makes it so much easier.” Graville explains more about how Kudos is changing its business culture and processes. “One of the key ones is ‘eight wastes’, he says – the eight wastes of lean manufacturing: defects, excess processing, overproduction, waiting, inventory, moving, motion and non-utilised talent.”


Five steps Reminders are listed on noticeboards around the factory. “It can be applied across the whole business, even the banks use it,” Graville says. “This has all come in since we arrived.” Another new working principle for Kudos is ‘5S’ – an


organisational and housekeeping methodology that refers to fi ve key steps – sort, set in order, shine, standardise and sustain. Shower enclosures remains a crowded market, of course, and one brand’s products can look similar to another’s. But Booth estimates Kudos is putting out 3,000 units on a weekly basis, not necessarily just enclosures – a fi gure that spikes in November, always “a great sales month”. But what about the wet room side? Is there still growth there? “Yes, our wet room range, the Ultimate, continues to grow,”


says Graville. “It’s the biggest selling line. But we also have the Pinnacle range, which is going from strength to strength and we’re going to expand that midway through this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if it catches Ultimate – it fi ts so easily.” And in what some might regard as an overcrowded marketplace, is there a risk of Kudos being squeezed from both the bottom and the top? “Merlyn in terms of volume are the number one,” Graville admits. “They’re owned by a very big business in Norcros and yes, they span right the way through from entry to the top. They’re a big player. Matki are very specialist and proud of what they deliver at the top, but I wouldn’t say we’re squeezed by that. “We’re very proud of where we sit in the marketplace and


we’re going to expand what we do with the customer base we have and the ranges we offer.”


kbbr 42


Those retailers that sell the product do it because they like it and the support that we give them. We want to reward that and we haven’t perhaps done as much as others over the past couple of years, but that’s what we’ll see changing


Nick Graville, sales and marketing director, Kudos


1. Aqua4ma wet-room system 2. Connect 2 tray with Kamba anti-slip coating


2.


Rivals We’ve not looked at other suppliers. We’ve got enough experience to know what we’re doing and that’s what we’re more interested in.


Products Our focus is shower enclosures, but there’s


a massive potential for trays. It’s about 90:10 enclosures to trays.


Customer base We’re a very heavily showroom-oriented


brand. We do trade with some merchants and the new specifi cation market is a good opportunity for us. We also do some work in hotel developments and we’re looking to grow there as well. We’ve got a very strong customer base and route to market through our core distributors. So we’re not necessarily looking to open hundreds of new accounts. The specifi cation market can be a slow burner, but we see big potential.


Distribution A bit is direct, predominantly the merchants,


but most of our showroom business is through distribution: Barwick, Claygate, Formula Bath- rooms and Dell Factor. The key for us is the next-day service. It’s very diffi cult for us to offer that. These independent showrooms want to get everything all in one go. They have small showrooms, with not much storage space, so distribution has absolutely got a place.


The internet You’d be silly to ignore it. A lot of retailers


have an internet channel, but we’re not going to set up a website and start selling online and compete with Amazon. It’s a channel that we take very seriously, but the product has got to be sold in the right way. We know where the end sale is. We can review it, analyse it and control it.


Selling online


In our lives generally it will grow, but it might grow more at the entry level. If you’re really going to invest in a high-end shower enclosure, you might do some research online but you want to touch and feel it. It’s a tough industry to be selling online. You have to store everything, it’s next-day delivery, it’s deliver anywhere, there’s a lot of returns and there’s a lot of successful companies already doing it.


kbbreview · June 2019


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92