Wickes, the DIY chain of more than 190 stores, has confirmed plans to open a series of dedicated kitchen and bathroom showrooms following its growth in big ticket items during the recession.
A pilot scheme will see approximately six sites open this year, with the first just before Easter.
Speaking exclusively to kbbreview, Wickes managing director Jeremy Bird said this was a trial scheme but he believed it would expand the company's kitchen and bathroom offer into geographic areas where there weren't Wickes superstores."We're going to open a few and see how it goes," he said. "I wouldn't say it was a hard and fast part of our strategy, but it's an opportunity given that there's property available at the moment at sensible price levels.
"[We're going to put them] in a variety of places and see how they perform and how easy, or otherwise, they are to manage, so it's a trial."
The stores, called simply Wickes Kitchens and Bathrooms will, Bird said, occupy an equivalent floorspace to the kitchen and bathroom sections in the normal stores, split roughly 50:50 between the two product groups. The products offered will also be the same, with much coming from distributor Mark Two, and the installation service will, as with the standard store, be project managed by Wickes with subcontracted fitters.
However, Bird denied that Wickes's plans were triggered by the demise of MFI, a collapse that left a huge gap in the mid-market kitchen sector. The announcement comes a few months after Tesco announced it was moving into a design and fit service for its kitchen and bathroom offer with full displays in its Tesco Home stores.
"MFI is not a trigger for it, it's a helpful factor," he said. "This is an option we've had on our list for quite a while. We haven't just targeted big ticket stuff, we've been selling kitchens and bathrooms for quite a few years and they've done particularly well recently, but we've done very well in all parts of our business to be honest.
"Of course, everybody in the sector was helped by the fact that MFI wasn't there - their turnover was in the order of £400 million, and that's out there in the market for everybody to get a slice of. That's helped at a time when the market is dramatically down."
Wickes has widely been seen as a strong performer in a downturn that has hit the multiple market badly. At the height of the recession last summer, while its core DIY products were down nearly 6%, kitchens and bathrooms were up by nearly 17%. This growth is attributed to effective advertising that promoted the 'We put our name on it' message of quality rather than price and discount.
"We think that's a differentiating factor for Wickes," Bird said. "We dobelieve our kitchens and bathrooms are better than our competitors' and represent much better value. We don't want to be seen as a discounting DIY store as that's not what we are in terms of kitchens and bathrooms."We're selling the best product at our price point by a mile and that's the message we want to get across."
Bird would not reveal any set targets for the new showrooms, but said: "Our aspirations on kitchens and bathrooms are to be significantly bigger and better than they already are."
