the BIG interview Independent electrical retailers herald their moves into kitchen sector
L-R: Simon Collyns, Steve Jones and Robert Williamson
Kitchen and Fitted Bedroom Collections. For the Freedom brand, Symphony partnered
with Adam Thomas, the UK’s leading designer of accessible kitchens, with an unrivalled reputation for his innovative designs. Mr Williamson said: “Adam’s work has helped
transform lives by empowering his clients with a sense of independence. He has raised the bar for accessible kitchens to demand that they are both practical and stylish. “Symphony has incorporated these design
principles to develop a collection of kitchens that are both attractive, accessible and empowering.” Mr Williamson said that he wants to work with
Sirius members and he said the first step should be to engage with the business. “Come and speak to us and speak to other
Sirius members,” Mr Williamson said. “It’s all about getting people involved in the success. “With the values that we’ve got and the stock holding – times are tough for everybody out there – but we’ve had less than 1.5% of out of stocks compared to a lot of our competitors. “We have a restricted number of supply
partners, we have a best in breed buying department and we believe everybody in the supply chain should make a profit.” The government announced 300,000 new
Whitby Atlantic Green
with Symphony – Simon Cox, a director of Borshch, said: “We’d never done kitchens before and I said we’d never do kitchens – we’ve got our niche and that’s graded appliances. “Symphony become an approved supplier to the Sirius Buying Group and the group was promoting
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its kitchens; then we took on our store in Erdington – 18,000 square feet across two floors – and I met Robert Williamson; I earmarked a section for Symphony and it started from there.” Mr Cox said that when he spoke to Symphony, he said that if he was to sell kitchens, he didn’t want
to be just another kitchen showroom, but he wanted to have something special. Borshch has two designers on board, Paddy and Steve. Mr Cox said: “During lockdown, Paddy did every single Symphony course he could go on and become a kitchen designer. “When I asked for something different, we got the Freedom range and we’re really proud of it. We’ve done three Freedom kitchens so far and have another couple on the bubble; Paddy gets on really well with Adam Thomas. We also sell Symphony kitchens from the Laura Ashley range and we’ve put a display in the window for everyone to see.” Mr Cox added: “We’re about to sign a kitchen order for £50,000, which is for a Laura Ashley kitchen;
we’ve sold Freedom kitchens at £50,000, and we have signed three contracts this week for £2,000, £3,000 and £17,000. – Symphony sold us a vision and got us on board – it’s brilliant.” Warren Butler, managing director of TJ Butler in Queenferry, said: “When we had the appliance only
store, we got loads of people coming in for appliances for their complete kitchen. They were coming in with their designs from the DIY stores and they were shocking – they made no use of the modern appliances to show what could be done. I thought we could a do a better job.” Mr Butler has 19 Symphony kitchens on display.
“The cheapest kitchen we’ve done is about £3,000; the dearest is £40,000+,” he said. “A typical value is £15,000 to £20,000. If you took an £8,500 kitchen, you would need to sell 60+ typical washing machines to get the same amount of profit. “We’ve got two designers, but you don’t have to start with two designers – I’d certainly start with one, rather than trying to do it yourself. We’ve done 60+ kitchens so far, but we’re not where we want to be, we want to be doing a lot more.”
homes in the budget and is talking about another 160,000 new homes. Mr Williamson said: “We’ve got a site in
Wakefield that’s been built with quite a few thousand houses on it and most of those kitchens are going to be Symphony. National house builders buy from Symphony because we give the service, we’re obsessed with service. “Everything basically is delivered direct from
the factory to either the site or to the retailer’s end customer – retailers have got 28 days to ring us and tell us about a problem and we’ll supply a replacement item free of charge. We have a three-day guaranteed remedial service on standard products and paint to order products are replaced within five working days. “We were the first manufacturer to adopt
water-based paint technology for spraying of all our doors, which was way ahead of the requirements that were needed.” Mr Williamson has worked for Symphony
for 39 years – many staff have worked in the company for over 35 years – and he said it’s been amazing to see the company grow. “From a double garage in Leeds, with a trailer and a car; to what we’ve got now in 51 years is just remarkable,” he said.
November 2021
www.ierdaily.co.uk | 17
imon King spoke to two independent electrical retailers that have worked
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