October/November 2022
ertonline.co.uk
Bill Miller at the KBBG Annual Members’ Meeting in June 2022 The KBBG team
Q&A
Q: How are your retailer members capitalising on this boom in home improvement? Bill Miller: Our members are always considering changing and updating their showrooms to reflect the trends. For example, one of our retailers actually took out a whole kitchen display in order to put a massive dining table in his front window to tap into that desire for families to sit together at meal times. He was prepared to reduce the amount of product on display in order to show the table as a centrepiece statement. Other trends never stop evolving, and many dealers are upgrading their studios to try and move their business a little bit more upmarket; their belief is that if they’re selling two kitchens a month, why can’t those two kitchens be of higher value that they will make more money on.
This really plays to our strengths as a buying group because the retailers can all tap into the experiences of others and it’s nice to be able to share some good ideas that could be utilised. Interestingly, despite the turmoil in the retail sector at the moment, there are still many entrepreneurs who are passionate about setting up a kitchen studio and they’re seeing our group as the perfect partner to help source the right products at the right time at the right price.
Q: So what’s new at KBBG? BM: The KBBG is expanding quite rapidly; very soon we’ll operate in the majority of European countries and where there’s less of a buying group philosophy we will be leading the way promoting this concept like we have done in the UK. As a group we are forecasting around 15-16 per cent sales growth across Europe, which is fantastic. From a UK perspective, we continue to grow the membership at a rate of one new member a week and I see no reason that won’t continue. If anything, as the market tightens that actually may lead to more retailers wanting to engage with us to access all the benefits that we bring. Going back a few years I think there was a bit of uncertainty around buying groups and how they could actually help, but that’s largely gone now and we continue to go from strength to strength.
Q: How else to you enhance your member support and how do you get the benefits the KBBG offers across to the retail network? BM: We have just started working with the Builders Merchants Federation, and around 50 per cent of its members are already selling kitchens and various associated products. But that’s still a huge number of merchants that don’t operate in this area with a large amount of interest around what we do. It’s the same with CIH. We have an exclusive arrangement; we are its official supplier of kitchen furniture, which might seem odd – one buying group working with another – but actually our goals are very closely aligned and it’s a perfect example of working together for the benefit of independent retailers. They point us towards certain members of theirs that are considering selling kitchens and we create a tailor-made support package to enable them to make a great success in kitchens and get a good return on their investment. It’s all about getting face-to-face with the retailer,
because truthfully there’s no downside to signing up from their perspective; we offer so many benefits in terms of products that they already buy that they can get at improved margin, or additional bonuses that they didn’t originally have, or whether they want to engage with new suppliers and services – things like lead generation and consumer finance, the list goes on. And we’re a non-restrictive buying group, so the retailer can buy and sell whatever they wish – whether it’s products from our suppliers or even from other suppliers, there’s a lot of flexibility.
Q: In June you hosted your eighth Annual Members’ Meeting. Tell me about that and some of the key topics that were discussed? BM: After the success of last year’s Meeting we were very excited to take the event to another exceptional venue. The growth of technology is such a vital topic to the home improvement sector and we chose the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry to reflect this. It’s important to keep our agenda fresh and relevant, so we had a selection of engaging speakers as well as some inspiring breakout workshops to choose from. Our keynote speaker this year was Steve Nesbitt, who is one of the professors from the MTC. He spoke so eloquently about the country’s move to net zero, and in particular what this means for businesses; for example, end of life of product, especially in the kitchen market where it involves appliances and a lot of different materials that have to be disposed of correctly. This certainly caught everybody’s attention and really got them thinking. Speaking to some of our members on the day I was surprised to learn that they haven’t given much thought to what the business implications of this change might be. This was probably our best meeting to date, and hopefully next year’s will be even better. >>
Alku kitchen furniture, established and manufactured by Getley
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