Words: Jayne Barber

Where it was once split much more evently with the contract sector, the luxury end of the fitted kitchen market is now becoming increasingly dominated by the specialist studio sector. 

And this is reflected in JKMR’s latest report on the luxury kitchen market, which seeks to pull back the curtain on what’s really going on at the highest end of the fitted kitchen sector.

Luxury has no hard and fast definition within the kitchen or bathroom industry, but JKMR defines the luxury kitchen sector as the top 7.5% highest-costing kitchen projects. At present that means a project cost of at least £70K, once things like VAT and fitting costs are factored in. 

For the purpose of JKMR’s most recent report, we also chose to include kitchens supplied by trade operators (because Howdens does also sell kitchens to clients in very high value properties), plus those installed in luxury new builds.

JKMR calculates that in 2025, the luxury segment was worth £2.15bn in terms of end-client price. This means that luxury projects made up 35.6% of total UK fitted kitchen market value, yet they only accounted for 7.35% of all projects.

Historically, both specialist studios and direct contract companies were the primary routes to market for luxury kitchens. For instance, specialists sold just over half of all luxury kitchens in 2016, and contract companies supplied a further third. 

In the years since, the contract market’s share has declined considerably, with 2025 seeing over 60% of luxury kitchen projects being provided by the studio sector.  

It’s not simply been the case that studio clients are just becoming ‘more luxurious’, the increase reflects the unique nature of the studio retail process, where studios actively market higher-cost products as having a practical benefit.  

At this stage, JKMR believes the studio share has reached a current peak.  New build completions are expected to pick up slightly in 2027, which will help cabinetry brands that serve the new build sector direct. 

Additionally, JKMR expects Howdens will continue to nibble away at the luxury sector by supplying tradespeople working on high value housing construction and refurb with at least some product elements. Wren, Wickes, and (possibly) Magnet will also look to inch up their highest spending client project totals. Nonetheless, JKMR firmly believes specialists’ will remain very much the dominant route to market.

The value of the luxury segment has risen 51% over the past ten years, however growth has not been uniform across the four main product groups.  

Cabinetry growth has been lowest, at 43%, but 2016-2025 sink/tap value has virtually doubled. Interestingly, while 2016-2022 saw major appliance sector growth notably outstrip cabinetry’s growth, current calculations show that 2022-2026 cabinetry growth will be slightly stronger than appliance growth.  

To put this into context, 2016-2022 saw currency issues, and the introduction of new products, driving up appliance costs more than the rise in typical cabinetry cost. 

Over the past four years, appliance suppliers have been generally more wary about implementing price increases in a market place that is, due to falling volumes, quite over-crowded at the moment.  

Moreover, the growth in the number of major appliances per luxury kitchen has largely come to a halt. It is relatively easy to sell the benefit of having four different types of oven, two fridges, a wine fridge and a freezer, as would now be quite typical for a £70K+ kitchen project. But beyond that, clients may well question why they could ever possibly need five ovens or two freezers.

Luxury lifestyles

Anyone familiar with the luxury market know that the luxury label is no longer simply about offering the client something ‘very expensive’. Luxury means that both products and the purchasing experience itself match the aspirations and values of high net worth individuals.  

And this can cover many product attributes beyond cost – like cutting edge design, eco-sensibility, social justice engagement, new technology, personalisation, longevity, curating personal image, or even sheer exclusivity.  All of these things are feeding into how suppliers and retailers are engaging with luxury projects.

The nature of luxury clients means there has always been a proportion of sales primarily actioned by a third party (such as an architect or interior designer). This ensures expertise and time for finding ‘just the right product’, and is one of the main reasons that the sector is associated with niche/‘rare’ products.  

While the need for a professionally designed luxury kitchen will never change, the way luxury clients approach the buying process may go on to diverge into two distinct aspects.

In one lane, you will have kitchen projects supplied entirely, or to a very large part, at a single point of sale. For instance, maybe a specialist studio who will provide the design expertise and a pre-determined stable of brands/products. In these projects, cabinetry will remain brand-driven and the homeowner may very well handle the whole process themself.

The other route could see luxury kitchens being co-ordinated by a sort of project manager, who may be a kitchen designer or architect themself. For these projects it may be that standard sized carcasses are purchased from a mainstream source but ‘specials’ would be made to order by an artisan workshop. 

Then, frontals would be imported or made to order from a further source, with handles and interior fittings sourced from yet other specialist suppliers, worktops from fabricators, and appliances, sinks, and taps from varying other sources.  

These projects may opt for well-known brands for worktops, sinks, taps and appliances, but the cabinetry would be truly ‘bespoke’ and branding would be a matter of using the designer’s name rather than that of a cabinetry supplier’s.

The potential for this would have a considerable impact on the luxury kitchen market as it currently exists, where cabinetry branding is a major aspect, and many manufacturers run their own showrooms precisely in order to maximise their brand visibility.

All of this may suggest the outlook for the luxury kitchen market, and the specialists who focus on luxury in particular, isn’t entirely positive. Yet it is unlikely that wealthy homeowners will simply turn away from refurbishing their kitchens. 

JKMR believes that with a population that now perceives a ‘fully fitted’ kitchen as a basic expectation, and which will naturally wish to upgrade on the previous kitchen, the number of those who are comfortable with spending at least £70k on a new kitchen will remain robust.  

What may happen, however, is a significant shift in the perception of luxury away from purely meaning money spent on a wider ‘holistic value’, and a gradually evolving design and buying process.

Jayne Barber is the director of JKMR, an independent market research firm for the fitted kitchen market. Contact Jayne at [email protected] for the full report.