Interview: Sean Hannam

Kaboodle is the UK’s largest independent installer of white goods – it claims it can fit kitchen appliances anywhere in the country thanks to its five nationwide depots in Stevenage, Telford, Leeds, Highbridge and Plymouth.

This year sees the fast-growing business celebrating its 20th anniversary – it was founded by managing director, Matthew Pitt, a former installer, in 2005. 

Working with leading premium appliance brands, high street retailers, house builders and developers, Kaboodle directly employees more than 90% of its kitchen appliance installers, who are qualified to carry out work on a wide range of products, including chimney/island hoods and gas range cookers.

Kaboodle is also a zero-landfill business – it ensures that all product packaging and any old appliances are removed after an installation and properly recycled. 

Pitt is passionate about training – in 2023, Kaboodle launched a white goods installer apprenticeship programme in partnership with North Hertfordshire College, which is local to the business’s depot in Stevenage, and it’s looking to roll the scheme out to other colleges. 

It also has plans to open a new depot in the south of England this year, and work with more small kitchen retailers to increase their installation offering.

Matthew Pitt

How did you get into the industry? 

When I left school, I took a very traditional route – I did a four-year apprenticeship at a manufacturing plant, working towards an HND in Electrical Engineering. 

After I qualified, I had a brief spell at an electronics company, where I was selling the components that I used to work on. I got made redundant after just six months, while I was looking for the next step on my career path, a family member got me a temporary job at an appliance distribution firm – I was a general dogsbody, helping to load appliances onto construction sites.

I ended up enjoying being on-site, and, because I had an electrical background, it was clear that I could be more useful to the installers than just loading out, so they agreed to train me as an installer – I was there for just over three years, and I did a fast-track traineeship.

I worked as an appliance installer for developers, working all over the south east – it was a bit of an accident, but I happened to enjoy it and I stuck around. 

So, did you see a gap in the market to launch Kaboodle?

It was two-fold. Firstly, I could clearly see an opportunity because the nearest competitors to the company I worked for were based in the Midlands and the North, so their ability to service London was tricky. I figured if I was able to offer an installation service to distributors based in Birmingham and Leicester, then that could open up a huge area for them.

Secondly, I think it was probably born out of frustration – I felt I had more to offer, and I wanted to create a business around what I saw was important from the perspective of the installer who was out in the field, not just for those people who were sitting in the office. 

Initially, I founded the business on my own – I got a van and started with that on day one. Quite quickly, I started to build a team and it snowballed very rapidly. We currently employ 97 people.

What are the main benefits Kaboodle can offer?

We have a few USPs – number one is that we’re national. Our tech enables us to do some clever things – for example, we can white label our customer booking portal for our retailers, and we can provide live digital Proof of Delivery and status updates.

Our installers are 90% directly employed and trained in-house, which gives us control over our business. If we were predominantly reliant on subcontracted installers, we’d be in the same fight as everyone else for very limited resources – it’s too risky, so I’d rather we focus on growing our own and then we have the confidence that we can meet the clients’ demands.

In 2023, Kaboodle launched a white goods installer apprenticeship programme with a local college in Stevenage. Tell us about that…

We felt there was nothing out there that we could tap into in terms of formal training, which was frustrating. No-one was going to fix a problem that they didn’t know existed, so we had to have a go at it ourselves. 

Our installers aren’t plumbers or electricians, but they require all those skills – none of the traditional apprenticeships were suitable because our appliance installers wouldn’t get the experience to cover all the modules [needed], so we ended up designing a curriculum with our local college. 

The apprentices learn the basic skills required for gas and electrical installations, and then we partnered with some local plumbing firms, who agreed to take the apprentices on to learn the modules we couldn’t cover.

It’s been a real success – all bar one of our original apprentices are still with us and progressing well into experienced installer roles. The plan is to take that and roll it out across all our depots – we’re on the lookout for local colleges in Leeds, Telford, Highbridge and Plymouth to see if we can replicate what we’ve achieved in Stevenage.

Would you say the KBB sector is suffering from a skills shortage?

Without a doubt. I can remember a piece kbbreview did on it last year from the BiKBBI Conference, which I attended. It was quite sobering and highlighted that 50% 0f the UK’s installer workforce is expected to retire in the next five years, and over 60% of KBB installers are considering leaving the industry.

We are facing a huge problem. Any KBB business providing an installation service has got to take responsibility by offering apprenticeships and creating an environment that young people want to work in. 

I know that some of the smaller companies don’t want to invest money in training, only to lose the apprentice to a competitor when they’ve finished their apprenticeship.

I kind of get that, but it’s a very short-sighted view because, if everybody takes on apprentices, everybody wins – regardless of if you lose your apprentice to a competitor, because you’ll find it a lot easier to recruit a qualified installer later because the industry is collectively putting more installers into the workplace. 

What other challenges do you see in the KBB sector?

It’s a challenging landscape – certainly for independent kitchen retailers. Margins are under pressure from the rising cost of materials and labour, plus customers are demanding competitive pricing.

Independents are also facing heavy online competition from the sheds, who seem to be pivoting from pure DIY to offering installation solutions – they can offer some slick logistics at scale, which is harder for the smaller independents to compete with.

Customers have more expectations in this social media-driven world – modern buyers want a Pinterest-worthy kitchen with seamless service and a fast turnaround, which is a tall order when you’re juggling labour shortages and supply delays. 

Do you think the Government needs to do more to help the KBB sector?

Absolutely. I think if the Government really wanted to impact the wider KBB sector, it should provide training funds directly to the business owners by way of tax credits, similar to how the R&D Tax Credits scheme runs. 

There’s no one size fits all solution for training requirements – if a business can demonstrate that X amount of its annual spend has been invested in training with specialist colleges, and it’s brought X amount of school-leavers into the workplace as a result, give them a tax break and let them decide the best way to put those funds to work. 

You’ve recently opened a new depot in Plymouth…

Yes – that’s going well. There’s a lot of demand in the south west. We have plans to open another depot this year, which will be around the Basingstoke area.

The plan to open more depots is to reduce lead times for our home installation clients and help us to be more agile to support housebuilders, whose programmes can change from one week to the next.

What do you think is Kaboodle’s role in the independent kitchen retail sector?

Over the years, we’ve supported many small appliance retailers and helped them to extend their reach – they will have a good local solution, with a few installers of their own, but by plugging in to Kaboodle, it’s enabled them to go national overnight.

We’re keen to do more, and we’d like to talk to the big buying groups to see if there’s something we could do together that they could rollout to their members.

How do you see Kaboodle developing in the future?

For Gen Z and beyond, DIY is dead – DIFM (Do It For Me) is the new normal, so I see the demand for what Kaboodle offers continuing to grow. Potentially, that will see us entering new markets that require a two-man, premium home installation service – it’s a nice, easy lifehack for people to purchase a product and then bolt-on delivery and installation, leaving with them nothing to think about other than turning the oven on and cooking dinner. 

How will you be celebrating Kaboodle’s 20th birthday?

I’ve got a bit of the founder’s curse when it comes to achievements – whatever milestones we hit, I’m over it quickly. I think it’s important for the team to mark, so I’m looking forward to getting around all the depots in the summer and putting on a barbeque, but we won’t be going nuts. 

I remember going big with our 10-year celebrations and then we hit a challenging few years. That’s always kept me grounded, but I’m extremely proud to have been in business for 20 years and I’m super-grateful to everyone who has played a part in that journey along the way.