Speaking on The kbbreview Podcast live at InstallerSHOW, retailers described how the market continues to be uncertain and difficult to predict, but that they believe “the work is still there if you’re willing to dig deep and look for it”.
Discussing the recent results of the kbbreview Retailer Confidence Survey – in which a quarter of participants said they were more confident than ever about their business, but one-in-five said they were “worried” about the future of their company – the retailer panellists were asked about how their own businesses were faring.
Luke Wedgbury, founder of Coalville Kitchens, said that in a word business was “tough”. He explained: “I choose my words wisely because I’ve been in the industry for 26 years now and even when the going’s good, business is tough. But when the going’s bad, business is still tough.
“So although we are not smashing our numbers in regards to our monthly and quarterly targets, we are getting there but it’s very, very difficult. We’re having to squeeze margins, we’re having to diversify, we’re having to think of new USPs.”
However, despite these difficulties, Wedgbury believes “it’s certainly not as difficult as it has been either”. Recalling Coalville Kitchens’ early days, he said: “We opened up our business in 2010 in the middle of a recession, and everybody said ‘ you’re mental, why would you do that now?’.
“Back then we had the enthusiasm – and the youth, I should say – to kind of carry it through. So, I’d say it’s not great, it’s a challenge, but the work is there if you’re willing to dig deep and and look for it.”
Trevor Scott, CEO at RFK, agreed that “tough” was a fair assessment of the market. He continued: “Market trading conditions are very difficult at the moment. We’re doing the numbers, but every month we sigh with the relief that we’ve hit the number that we were hoping for.”
In addition to hitting targets, Scott also said that lead times have become much shorter than he was used to, explaining: “We’d like to be on around about 12 weeks, but we’re lucky if we can get eight weeks at the moment. Which does mean that we’re backfilling months pretty late in the day sometimes.
“But the orders are coming through, the difficulty is that the in-tray isn’t bulging at the seams. It should be, but it isn’t, so we’re having to work harder, and harder, and harder to make sure that we convert that work and turn it into business that’s bankable.”
Taking a slightly more positive view, Elizabeth Pantling-Jones, managing director of Lima Kitchens, said: “Although I definitely don’t disagree with the other two I’m going say that business is looking pretty good for us.”
However, she did agree with Scott’s assessment, saying: “We’ve got the leads coming in and we are converting, them the struggle that we’ve got is that yes, our lead times aren’t as long as we would like them to be, but we are finding it very competitive out there. Because not all of our competitors are receiving the leads that we are, they’re cutting prices and we’re being asked to do the same.”
Taking a slightly different view, Tina Riley, owner of Modern Homes, said that her bathroom business was “extremely buoyant in comparison to the kitchen business” – an observation she also shared in a recent opinion piece in kbbreview magazine.
She explained: “I’ve got orders up till October on kitchens, and it’s fine, and it’s good, and the leads are still coming in. But I think we’ve been quiet the last couple of months because my profile of customer goes on holiday in May and June because they do not want to go in July and August or they’re at home looking after the grandchildren.
“So I will get another hit from them in September when the kids have gone back to school but my biggest issue is what do I do now? I can’t say to somebody tomorrow ‘I can’t do your bathroom till next year’, so my issue is finding installers to fulfil the work we have got.”
In related news, all four retailers also discussed how they felt that online social media marketing was becoming too “saturated”, and said they had been turning to traditional marketing methods like direct mail to promote their businesses instead.
You can listen to the full discussion on The kbbreview Podcast, which was recorded live at InstallerSHOW, below:
