National retailer Wren Kitchens is planning to invest roughly £20m into opening 15 new showrooms this year, following the kitchen giant’s sudden departure from the US market last week.
The company says that Southport, Leamington Spa and Newport on the Isle of Wight are the first three locations it is looking to open using the new investment, which hs been made to accelerate the business’ expansion plans across the UK.
Work to start fitting out the Southport and Leamington Spa sites is said to be beginning “almost immediately”, and the new Isle of Wight showroom will be newly-built, aiming to be open before the end of 2026.
Kitchen and bedroom retailer Wren employs more than 7,500 people, and says that its plan to open 15 more showrooms in 2026 should create almost 170 new jobs. Currently, Wren has 124 showrooms across the country.
Mark Pullan, Wren’s chief executive, said: “This £20m investment is the latest chapter in a sustained reinvestment programme, further strengthening our regional presence and bringing our growing product range to more customers, right on their doorstep.
“There is demand in the market for high-quality kitchen and bedrooms at affordable prices and alongside our investment in new showrooms we will be launching new categories later this year including offices, boot rooms, media walls, and utility rooms.
“It’s been a strong start to 2026 and encouragingly the double-digit market growth we saw last year has continued into the first quarter of this year.”
In related news, Wren suddenly closed all of its showrooms in the United States last week, along with its American subsidiary, Wren Holdings US. Explaining its reasoning for leaving the US market, the company said it was looking instead to “focus investment on accelerating our core UK business”.
Last year, Wren also exclusively revealed to kbbreview that it had plans to open a retail showroom “in every town and city in the country” over the next several years.