Read the success story

Kitchen retailer profile · Kutchenhaus
The
door’s
always
open
Nobilia has just opened
another Kutchenhaus
showroom, in Brentwood,
Essex. But this time
it is a franchise run by
Dave Cowling who also
operates a successful Clive
Christian showroom. David
Harris talks to him about the
move and why he’s already
thinking about taking on a
second franchise
Dave Cowling
T
here has been much debate in recent issues of
kbbreview about how German kitchens compare with
British kitchens, with strong views aired from both
sides of the fence.
But one thing that always seems to emerge is
that people do ask for German kitchens and they
believe they offer good quality, albeit at a price…
It is that last preconception that Nobilia was
keen to shake off, however, when it opened
Kutchenhaus in the UK to sell its products.
The first three Kutchenhaus shops, in
Manchester, Sutton Coldfield and York are all
notably big, operated directly by Nobilia, and
have immediately taken a significant position in
the local markets.
Philip Croak, sales and operations director
Kutchenhaus, says that one of the main aims is
to show customers that German kitchens do not
have to be pricey.
He says: “People do perceive German kitchens as expensive and one of our main tasks has
been to show people that we are not only good,
but good value. That’s one reason why our latest
design tool on the website, which allows customers to configure their ideal kitchen on screen in
just a minute or two, has the price displayed in
the corner of the screen, so customers can immediately get an idea of how much what they are
looking at will cost them.”
What that means, in pounds and pence, says
Croak, is that while some Kutchenhaus kitchens
might cost £15,000 fitted, the average cost in the
York shop comes in at £9,800. Not the cheapest
kitchen you will find, but economical enough to
raise questions about the theory that German
equals pricey.
It was only a matter of time before Kutchenhaus ventured outside the North of England, so it
was no surprise when a branch opened in Brentwood, Essex, in January.
There was an important difference, however,
because the Brentwood Kutchenhaus was the
first to be franchised. Two years in planning,
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Kutchenhaus · Kitchen retailer profile
Top: The Brentwood franchise is in a shopping centre
Below: Cowling’s large showroom has 10 full displays
Bottom: Kutchenhaus ‘coffee girl’ logo overlooks
handleless Sand lux lacquer and Montana pine display
Mineral grey Laser kitchen with
Silestone Blanco Zeus worktops
and Elica extractor hood
Cowling says: “There was a big gap in the
market for properly designed German kitchens at
prices that aren’t as expensive as people perceive
them to be. Yes, they cost more than Howdens or
Magnet, but with Nobilia you get an incredibly
professional organisation.”
It is also an impressively large one. As information displayed on the wall of the new
Kutchenhaus branch proudly proclaims, Nobilia
was founded in 1945 (putting it in at the start
of the postwar industrial revival), it now makes
580,000 kitchens a year – 2,600 completed kitchens a day. It exports to 86 countries. In taking on
a Kutchenhaus franchise, Cowling is buying a
small slice of a massive cake.
Appeal
Handleless Satin Grey
lux lacquer kitchen with
island, row of tall appliances
and media centre
the Brentwood franchise was taken on by Dave
Cowling (pictured top left), already a wellestablished kitchen retailer in the area through
the Clive Christian dealership he runs with his
brother in Brentwood’s high street.
Clive Christian occupies a fairly rarefied part of
the kitchen market, so why did Cowling decide
to take the plunge with the first Kutchenhaus
franchise? It turns out that the price point of
Kutchenhaus was a vital ingredient.
Nobilia’s target market also appealed to Cowling.
He says: “They appeal to 80% of the market.
They are not interested in the bottom 10%, the
flat-pack, cheapy-cheapy bit. And they are not
interested in appealing to the top 10% bespoke
market. The rest they cover.”
The franchise agreement with Nobilia did not
require any initial set-up fee from Cowling, but
he is obliged to sell only Nobilia furniture with
whatever appliances he chooses.
Brentwood, Cowling’s home patch, is ideal for
this sort of kitchen, he says.
“It’s affluent, people have a large disposable
income and we are well placed to deal with those
coming from further afield.”
The new store is bang in the middle of Brent-
wood, in the Baytree shopping centre, not far
from the high street. It is a large shop, if not quite
as big as the York or Manchester branches, and it
is impressively fitted out.
This is partly down to careful preparation from
Cowling and partly down to help from a team
of German fitters that Nobilia sent over from
Germany in December, who took more than a
month to fit out the store.
There are some thoughtful touches. Because it
is in a shopping centre, the wide doors are permanently open, allowing those passing to wander in
for a look if they want without feeling trapped.
The showroom itself is smart, roomy and u
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Kitchen retailer profile · Kutchenhaus
There was a gap in the market for properly designed
German kitchens at affordable prices. Yes they cost more than
Howdens or Magnet, but with Nobilia you get an incredibly
professional organisation
includes a room with a television in it that is
intended for children to watch films while their
parents take their time shopping for a kitchen. It
is a clever idea.
The staff include Cowling’s sister, Stella Dawes,
as showroom manager, and three full-time sales
and design staff – Robert, Raquel and Andrew.
The layout of the shop draws customers down a
central aisle with kitchen displays off it to the left
and right in a conventional and neat design, but
it doesn’t have a crowded feel: the planning time
seems to have been well spent.
And not crowding the customers is an overall
aim for Cowling and his team.
He says: “We really don’t want people to feel
that they will be cornered by sales staff if they
come in here. Obviously, we are here to help, but
we want a relaxed atmosphere. We think that the
kitchens should speak for themselves.”
Happy
Who is the typical customer? There isn’t one,
says Cowling. “It could be someone with a onebedroom apartment or a couple with a family
who live in a £1 million house. We really do cover
the range,” he adds.
Since opening in January, Cowling has been
fairly happy with sales, which he describes as
being “four or five kitchens a week on average
and in the best weeks six or seven”. The first
kitchen was sold “to a developer friend” before
the shop even opened and the first from the sales
floor went within a fortnight of opening.
Cowling uses subcontracted fitters to put in
the kitchens, but is happy enough to supply the
kitchens alone to both customers who want to
use their own builders and to the trade.
There is a gap between ordering and delivery, says Cowling, typically six to eight weeks,
depending on the German factory and, notably,
German holidays.
Another advantage of the Kutchenhaus franchise, says Cowling, is that customers see the
kitchens on the internet and come from some
distance to buy them because they have decided
that Nobilia is a good bet.
In one case, he even found himself travelling to
Chippenham in Wiltshire, nearly 100 miles west
of London and considerably further from Brentwood, to plan and design one kitchen.
It is a help that, if a customer wants a Nobilia
kitchen in the UK, then Kutchenhaus is an obvious place to buy it. The Kutchenhaus website is
used purely to display what is on offer – you can’t
buy directly from it, so a visit to a store (or from
someone at that store) is essential.
Another thing that seems clear is that Kutchenhaus is now preparing to open more franchises
to expand its UK coverage and that Cowling will
be among those bidding to run further shops. He
is open about enjoying the prospect of becoming
a multiple franchisee, although he acknowledges
that it is still “very early days”. Croak also makes it
clear that he would be happy to see Cowling take
on more Kutchenhaus stores.
It seems unlikely that Nobilia will run more
shops directly, as it did through the first three
Kutchenhaus stores.
Croak makes if pretty obvious that Nobilia does
not see itself as a retailer, except in very specific
circumstances.
He says:“We are Nobilia and we don’t really do
retail. We set up Kutchenhaus because nobody
really knew the Nobilia name in the UK. Our
business model was designed for supply to businesses and in order to raise public perception of
the brand we needed to launch ourselves initially.”
Croak says that he is talking to several potential
franchisees already, so the market can probably
expect further Kutchenhaus franchises to be
announced.
This is all part of Nobilia’s long-term plans
to accelerate growth in international markets,
which it has made clear for some time.
Brentwood may be a very small part of a large
global jigsaw for Nobilia, but as the launch pad
for a network of UK franchises, it has an imporkbbr
tance that belies its size.
Top: Lacquer white gloss Flash kitchen with blue quartz island
Above: Silestone worktop with professional chrome mixer
Below left: One of the two front window kitchen displays
Below: Cowling and team with Philip Croak (third from left)
from Kutchenhaus
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