KITCHEN RETAILER PROFILE | Kitchens International
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Mrs Smith down the road,” O’Brien says. “We’re always fresh in their minds and in their conversations.
It’s about finding as many opportunities to engage with your customers as possible.
Long-term view
“Some retailers think too short-term,” O’Brien adds. “They’re so focused on making more margin right now that they fail to see the bigger picture. We prefer to take a longer-term view.” Staff development is crucial to the brand and it has a programme called Insights, which is designed to help nurture and develop the strengths of its people, while addressing any issues or problems team members might have. “However, it also relates to our clients because they’re obviously
all completely different,” he explains. “We have some clients that don’t want to talk to us at all when we’re on-site fitting their kitchen and want us gone as quickly as possible. And there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s just what they want.
“On the flip side, we have some clients who will make us tea and chat to us and one that even complained because they said we’d completed the job too quickly. They were perfectly happy with the job, but felt that as they’d spent a lot of money, they wanted a bit more time and to make more of a connection. So we’ll try to align the right staff to the right jobs.”
Despite all the success, Kitchens International has faced its challenges, but O’Brien says there’s not much he’d change about the past, given the opportunity to go back in time. “We’ve grown from within,” he says, “and we allow people space to make mistakes, as it’s only through this that people can learn about the implications of mistakes and learn from them.” Being a large operation, one of the biggest challenges that Kitchens International faces is effective communication. Having smaller teams with autonomous authority helps with this, O’Brien says, and KI also has a company-wide intranet system where they share news and updates. So that’s the story up to now. The company is making the most of its anniversary from a commercial perspective with celebrations going on throughout the year. “We had an anniversary sale that was really well-received and we have loads of events planned that target our past and current customers,” O’Brien says.
“On August 23, we invited our partners and customers along 100 kbbreview · September 2019
to an event and there was horse riding, golf games, Segway rides and so on, and then in the evening we had a gala dinner with all our staff and key suppliers – all the people that make us who we are.”
O’Brien adds: “We are really proud to have grown the business from scratch and of our team and achievements.” Looking to 2020 and beyond, I’m keen to know the plans for the business and O’Brien tells me they will continue to develop their retail, contract and new commercial arm. “The hospitality industry is on the rise in Scotland, as is tourism, so we’re taking those exact same skills that have served us so well in the retail market and just applying them in a different channel. “Other than that, we’re constantly looking to the future and looking at how we can develop and nurture the new generation of the KI family who will eventually take over the business.” And I imagine we’ll see you at the kbbreview Retail and Design
Awards next year, I add. “The short answer is yes, I’m sure we will be there,” says O’Brien.
kbbr
Kitchens International makes it fi ve
Kitchens International is a five-time winner in the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards and added two more to its tally in 2019. Below is a list of those they have won:
Kitchen Retailer of the Year 2019 Kitchen Showroom of the Year 2019 Kitchen Retailer of the Year 2016 Kitchen Retailer of the Year 2014 Kitchen Retailer of the Year 2008
1. Wolf range cooker fl anked by custom curved units from Stoneham
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