There’s no doubt that Phillip Ozorio is well-placed to offer expert opinion on how to build a successful career in the KBB industry. 

He started out in kitchen design with Just Kitchens before moving to Bruton Kitchens in London during the 80s. In 1991 he branched out on his own launching Connaught Kitchens in the affluent Connaught Village, a stone’s throw away from the capital’s kitchen alley, Wigmore Street. 

“Once I had a taste and passion for kitchen design, it became my ambition to set up my own business,” Phillip Ozorio explains. 

“Initially I was looking to open the business in a shopping centre in Ealing, but I was turned down because they didn’t feel it would meet the tone they were trying to achieve. I always laugh when I go to that shopping centre now because it’s got a Primark and a pound shop in it! In hindsight though, I don’t think it was the right space for us anyway. They close the centre early evening which wouldn’t always work for us and, although it’s an affluent area you don’t have the same budgets as we do here.

“Once I’d seen this space though, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d want the business to be. It’s been a journey from there.”

Set over two floors, the 1,200sq ft boutique showroom has two displays upstairs and four room-set displays downstairs. On the furniture side, Connaught is now a solus Leicht dealer and this offering is complimented by partnerships with brands like Miele, Siemens, Lacanche, Bora, Quooker, Buster & Punch and Franke. 

“When I set up the business, being on the doorstep of Wigmore Street I was initially quite limited in terms of the brands I could take on because of competition and the need for exclusivity. But many of these supplier partnerships go back right to when we opened in 1991 and that’s down to the people and relationships that you must continue to nurture. 

“Nothing’s ever perfect but it’s how a company deals with challenges or issues to make them less painful for the retailer that makes a good supplier and that is experience and service driven.”

Rapport

Connaught’s relationships go so deep with Leicht in particular, that he refers to his contacts there as colleagues. And it’s not just supplier and customer relationships that Ozorio values and works hard to nurture.

The business employs two fully trained interior designers, Chiara Scartezzini and Hrisiana Angarova with whom Ozorio has a fantastic rapport which is demonstrated over a leisurely lunch during kbbreview’s visit. If you align with the saying ‘people buy from people’, when you meet Ozorio it’s easy to see why his business is still thriving after 33 years. 

“The business is based on relationships,” he says. “They are everything. Over the years we have built up a loyal base of key architects, interior designers and small developers who use us two or three times a year and that formulates around 90% of our current business. 

“We do come up against some of the Wigmore Street retailers from time to time. If it is feasting time, competition is fine, but when it’s famine and you’re hearing of clients visiting five or six different showrooms before deciding on their project, that can make London feel quite small. That said, we go back a long way with some of the guys on Wigmore Street so there’s also a feeling of community at times.”

Running an independent business for 33 years is no mean feat, so, is there a secret to success like this?   

“We set up in a recession and since then we’ve experienced another financial crisis, Brexit and Covid, to name a few dips in the road,” he says. “I’d say the secret to running a successful business is getting a number of factors right.

“One of the most important lessons I’ve learnt over the years is that you must be willing and able to adapt your business. Yes, we have experienced challenges along the way and have tried things that haven’t worked out but that’s where being open to change comes in and I think the business is stronger as a result.”

Location also helps of course. The majority of properties Connaught works in are worth upwards of £3 million which, Ozorio admits, means that the business doesn’t have to hit huge monthly sales targets to succeed something that’s particularly helpful during a challenging period. 

“We’ve had a really busy period up until now – the project sheet is probably half as busy as it was by comparison two years ago,” he says. “Part of the reason we were so busy in the first half of the year is that we had some delays on projects which are now being finalised.

“That said, we’ve always aimed ourselves more towards the high-end of the market and, because of the type of clients we’re working with and the budgets they have, we probably only have to do between 20-30 projects per year to tick over which takes a lot of pressure off.”

So, what’s next on the agenda for Ozorio and the Connaught Kitchens team? 

“I have no desire to open a second showroom, but I certainly want to grow the business in terms of developing new project work and strengthening relationships,” he concludes. “We’d like to do more with interior designers and architects and increase our contract business. We’ve been pretty slow in building up our social media presence until now, but we are now implementing a strategy to raise our profile and build key relationships. 

“We’ve introduced lunch meetings with key clients that have proved really useful as it gives them an opportunity to get to know us as people, and that all harks back to how important we view relationships.”

Phillip Ozorio on…

The multiples…

“One of the biggest changes I’ve seen during my time in the industry is how the national retailers have developed. They’ve all come a long way, in terms of production and everything else. While we’re generally targeting a different customer to them, I think it’s short-sighted to dismiss them.”

Finding the right staff…

“It has always been important for us to employ people with interior design experience, simply because of the level of training they need if they don’t. When we employed people with no interior design experience, I found that I was spending my time training them up and not leading the business from the front and that didn’t work for us. That said, you can sometimes just get lucky with people even if they don’t have the experience or degree.”

Charging for design…

“We have a retainer fee that we ask for once we’ve done the first design and the budget and that fee enables us to take the project further. So, we don’t call it a design fee it’s more about ensuring we all want to work together. We’d love to call it charging for design, but unless everybody does it’s tricky to. It would need to be a national strategy for it to work.” 

Sub-contract vs employed fitting teams…

“Kitchens are like buses…you wait for a while for one and then three come at once. This makes it tricky to employ full-time fitters because we do have quiet periods. We have two subcontracted fitting teams, and it all works because we’ve worked together for such a long time. Getting the fitter right is so important. If you don’t, it can cost you recommendations but ours are great and we have the 42 5* ratings on Google to prove it.”