The kbbreview Podcast

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Part Two of our look at the results of The kbbreview Retailer Survey 2024.

It's our biggest ever survey of independent kitchen and bathroom retailers and this week we're be looking at some of the biggest challenges retailers face - like the wider economy, finding good fitters and why consumer are taking so long to make decisions

And we'll also be looking at what retailers think of their suppliers - and what suppliers think of retailers...

We teamed up with the boffins at Eureka! Research to survey over 500 retailers and in this and last week's episodes we're discussing some of the results with a very special panel. We have...

Liz Pantling-Jones from Lima Kitchens in Milton Keynes

Kenny Luck from Luck & Fuller in Billericay

Alex Jenman from Gainsborough Kitchens in Gainsborough Lincolnshire

and

Simeon Gabriel, the managing director of Hettich UK

And, in case you missed it, here's the link to Part One

Our special survey pair of episodes are brought to you with the support of our 2024 kbbreview Research Partner Hettich. We couldn't have done this amazing survey without them so huge thanks to them. You can find out all about them at hettich.com.

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Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and the start of a brand new season - Season 11 to be exact - and this is going to be a great one because we're building up to kbb Birmingham and the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2024.

And we're kicking it all off with a two-parter looking at the results of the kbbreview Retailer Survey 2024. It's our biggest ever survey of independent kitchen and bathroom retailers looking at some of the key questions:

• Just what is the average project cost of a kitchen and bathroom?
• What do they really think about the overall market? 
• What challenges are they dealing with? 
• How do they rate their suppliers? 
• What’s happening with footfall, conversion rates and order value? 
• What confidence do they have for the potentially difficult times ahead?

We teamed up with the boffins at Eureka! Research to survey over 500 retailers and in this and next week's episodes we'll be discussing some of the results with a very special panel. We have

Liz Pantling-Jones from Lima Kitchens in Milton Keynes

Kenny Luck from Luck & Fuller in Billericay

Alex Jenman from Gainsborough Kitchens in Gainsborough Lincolnshire

and

Simeon Gabriel, the managing director of Hettich UK

So it's Part One this week and Part Two next week.

Our special survey pair of episodes are brought to you with the support of our 2024 kbbreview Research Partner Hettich. We couldn't have done this amazing survey without them so huge thanks to them. You can find out all about them at hettich.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is a very, VERY special episode.

First of all, believe it or not, this is Episode 200 of the show. That's right, 200 episodes of The kbbreview Podcast dedicated to all things independent kitchen and bathroom retail. 

Thank you so much to everyone who's tuned in, thank you to all the supporters and guests we've had along the way and rest assured we're already planning the next 200.

Not literally, we clearly make it up as we go along much more than that. 

Anyway, what better way is there to mark this milestone than by revealing the shortlist for the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2024.

That's right, over the next half an hour we'll be telling who the 2024 finalists are for the biggest awards in the kitchen and bathroom retail sector - and to keep the milestones coming, in 2024 we're celebrating our 30th birthday so who's in the running to pick up one of our legendary trophies in this anniversary year?

Huge thanks to our 2024 Awards Podcast Partner Sonas Bathrooms - you can find out all about them at sonasbathrooms.co.uk.

And you can book your tickets for the big awards event in March at kbbreview.com/awards

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Welcome to another very special bonus episode of The kbbreview Podcast all about the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2024!

Yes, the entries are closed and the first stage of judging is complete and that means the reveal of the shortlist for 2024 is imminent.

In fact, this episode is coming out on Monday, December the 11th as a little precursor for the big show on Thursday - that's December 14th.

That episode will be the first unveiling of the full rundown of finalists for the 2024 awards.That list won't be available anywhere else until the following week so if you want to know if you're on it, or you just want to know who the big names are then look out in the podcast feed.

You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube - just search 'kbbreview'...all one word. Or you'll be able to listen through kbbreview.com

But that's not all, not only is Thursday's episode the big shortlist reveal, it's also the last show of the year AND it's episode 200 of The kbbreview Podcast - it's almost as if we've planned it this way.

Today though, our amuse bouche of awards goodness is a reality interesting chat with one of last year's winners - Jamie Harding from the New Kitchen Retailer of the Year - Et Lorem in Reading - and one of our bathroom business judges - Sofia Charalambous from Origins Living. 

There's some great stuff in here about what it's like being a judge as well as what it's like being judged!

So kbbreview's George Dean meets them both,

Huge thanks as always to our 2024 Awards Podcast Partner Sonas Bathrooms, these special episodes wouldn't be possible without them! To find out more about them go to sonasbathooms.co.uk

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Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast and this the final episode of our Insight 2024 series of conversations with industry leaders.

At a time when the economic outlook is uncertain at best, what lessons can we learn from 2023 and what are the educated guesses about what may happen in 2024. Where are the opportunities? Where are the pitfalls? And where will we be in a year's time?

In this episode we're talking to Steve Breen, the managing director of VitrA UK - a big bathroom brand of course that he took over just over a year ago.

So we went to see him at his office to see how his first full year been and how he sees 2024 playing out.

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Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast and this another episode of our Insight 2024 series of conversations with industry leaders.

At a time when the economic outlook is uncertain at best, what lessons can we learn from 2023 and what are the educated guesses about what may happen in 2024. Where are the opportunities? Where are the pitfalls? And where will we be in a years time?

In this episode we're talking to a hugely experienced guy who knows the kitchen sector inside out and that Dave Mayer, the commercial director of Reginox. He's seen it all come and go over the years so his view of 2024 will be fascinating to hear…

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Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast and this another episode of our Insight 2024 series of conversations with industry leaders.

At a time when the economic outlook is uncertain at best, what lessons can we learn from 2023 and what are the educated guesses about what may happen in 2024. Where are the opportunities? Where are the pitfalls? And where will we be in a years time?

In this episode we're talking to Alex Ainge from Cyncly - a company that has had a very eventful 2023 after the mergers of Compusoft and Virtual Worlds so we'll be asking him about, among other things, where technology will go in 2024.

You can also hear the other excellent podcast episodes we have done with Cyncly this year with the links below

The customer journey with Cyncly – part one

The customer journey with Cyncly – part two

The Cyncly story

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Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast and this first episode of our Insight 2024 series of conversations with industry leaders.

At a time when the economic outlook is uncertain at best, what lessons can we learn from 2023 and what are the educated guess about what may happen in 2024. Where are the opportunities? Where are the pitfalls? And where will we be in a year time?

We're starting with a big name from a big brand and that's Simeon Gabriel, the managing director of Hettich UK.

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Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode Seven of Season Ten,

And this week we're talking all the communication retailers get from their suppliers.

Now clearly this was a massive issue during Covid and the supply problems that accompanied the huge boom in business.

But how has it changed, has it got better or worse since, and what exactly is 'good' communication anyway? 

And how does the traditional role of the rep fit into all this - what exactly do retailers want from those hard-working men and women who are the face of the brand for them?

We've got two great retailers who are also friends of the show - we have Nathan Damarell from KF Kitchens in Plymouth and Phil Beechinor from Alexanders in Worthing.

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Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, this is Episode Six of Season Ten and this week we've got a very special guest - Johnny Grey.

Johnny is, as you probably know, one of the most high profile designers in the kitchen arena and has been for decades. His boundless enthusiasm for design and the role the kitchen has in our lives, in society and in history has led him to not only continue his own eponymous practice, but also push forward formal education and debate about the subject as a whole.

Now he's taking the concept that kickstarted his career 40 years ago and updating it for a brand new market - the Unfitted Kitchen.

For the first time he is producing a range of kitchen furniture that showrooms can display and designers can specify - and it's all freestanding. It's a really interesting concept and if you go along to this episode's page at this link kbbreview.com/podcast you'll see a gallery of images of some of the items in question.

Host Andy Davies went along to his home in Hampshire to find out more and, as always with, Johnny, it's a pretty freewheeling conversation about his inspirations, his history, his design philosophies and, of course, the new Unfitted Kitchen concept.

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