Luxury furniture brand adds to owned studios and introduces mid-market brand

Poggenpohl UK has expanded its network of owned studios to nine, with the recent acquisition of one of its independent dealers DT Kitchens in Battersea, London.

The business which has operated from its high street location for the past five years will continue to be run by David Tindall and his team.

Managing director of Poggenpohl UK, Simon Richmond explained the purchase forms part of the group’s worldwide policy to grow its own studio network. He commented: “Our own studio performance is by far and away the most profitable part of our business. Hence, why there is such a focus in developing it. But it isn’t a question of buying shops everywhere and anywhere. It has to be the right partners [in] the right locations.”

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The kitchen furniture manufacturer, which now has nine owned studios and a network of 21 independent showrooms, is seeking to increase sales by opening showrooms in target areas. These areas include parts of Kent, and the South West of England including Cornwall, Bristol and Bath.

Simon Richmond pointed out these showrooms may either be owned by Poggenpohl or could be independent kitchen dealers, stating “we are very open to either of those opportunities.” And he shrugs off any suggestion there could be a conflict of interest between supplying the two: “We look upon our own studio and dealer network as one. To us they are the same. We don’t give any favouritism to our own studios. We make sure our dealer network, in many cases, is more looked after than our own studios to present them a very even playing field.”

UK dealership manager, Julia Bunney added the independent network remains core to the Poggenpohl business: “The dealer network is incredibly important, as obviously we have more of those, and that’s where we see much more potential in terms of increasing the turnover.”

Neither would be drawn on the number of target showrooms but did make it clear Poggenpohl has no interest in returning to a network of 70, like it had prior to 2000.

Instead, the company will be focusing on driving turnover through its showrooms by bringing back Goldreif, after a 10-year absence. Goldreif will only be made available to existing Poggenpohl studios and independent dealers, as a second brand, and will not be used to target additional showrooms.