Kitchen giant Howdens has reported a very healthy boost to its sales following the acquisition of online retailer DIY Kitchens, with the company also saying it achieved “record” sales during this year’s TradeFest event.
In June of this year, Howdens announced it had signed a deal worth £400m to acquire the parent company of Ultima Furniture Systems Limited, which trades publicly as “DIY Kitchens”. The deal also saw Howdens enter the consumer market, as DIY Kitchens operates as a national-scale online kitchen retailer which trades directly to the public.
In its latest trading update released this morning, Howdens revealed its group sales (which now includes figures from DIY Kitchens) increased by 6.8% between 14 June and 31 October.
As a result, Howdens’ group sales have increased by a strong 5.1% across the year so far, despite operating in “challenging macro-economic conditions”. Howdens also said its UK sales increased by 1.8% across the same period on a pro-forma basis, and are now 2.4% ahead across the year so far.
Additionally, Howdens reports it made “record” sales during its peak TradeFest business period, which it says was bolstered by “a significant proportion of new kitchen and joinery product in our line-up”.
Andrew Livingston, Howdens’ CEO, said: “Our trade only business has continued to grow supported by our highly engaged and well incentivised local teams, industry leading product ranges, and consistently high stock availability,”
“DIY Kitchens traded in line with our expectations. Its differentiated customer proposition and new route to market further expands our addressable customer base in the UK. Our on-going productivity and efficiency programmes are supporting competitive pricing across all our kitchen and joinery categories and are helping to mitigate inflationary pressures. We remain on track with the outlook for 2026.” In related news, last week DIY Kitchens opened its first-ever Scottish display showroom, which it claims is now the largest kitchen showroom in all of Scotland