Ex-display and used kitchen retailer Used Kitchen Exchange is now selling new kitchens online, on a supply-only basis, to consumers.

The supply-only kitchens are offered with a “strict criteria” of being pre-designed, limited in colour choice and consumers have to pay and accept delivery in a specified time-frame.

Created to cater for the growing interest in DIY, founder of Used Kitchen Exchange Helen Lord said the “exciting development” of offering trade offer prices on new kitchens was being “very well received”.

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She continued: “When we started out we did what it said on the tin, it’s Used Kitchen Exchange. The company is morphing into something much bigger.

“We see opportunity to work in partnership with the kitchen industry on a number of different levels.

“At the moment, we’re exploring the trade offers. It is a way of working with the supply-only market.”

However, she said the trade offer prices on new kitchens does not detract from its existing used kitchen business and does not compete with independent kitchen retailers.

In fact, Used Kitchen Exchange recently invested £10,000 into a Black Friday marketing campaign to support independent retailers, providing an additional opportunity to help them clear stock and displays.

Helen Lord explained: “People who come to our website, and there’s around 80,000 a month, are looking for something different. They would never walk into a kitchen showroom.

“They might go to Wren, they might go to Howdens or B&Q, but they are actually looking for a better quality and better design but they don’t want to pay the full price of a design service.

“They are people who want to design their own [kitchen] or are quite happy to design their own to save some money – a bit like any DIY’er would do.”

Lord said the retailers working with Used Kitchen Exchange to sell new and used kitchens have their own showrooms and “see the commercial opportunity and also see it’s not going to change what they are currently doing because people go to them for the entire service.”

Leicht Design Centres is selling a select offer of new kitchens through Used Kitchen Exchange and managing director Liam Hopper believes more retailers will adopt e-commerce.

Used Kitchen Exchange helps retailers sell their displays, so they don’t have money tied up in stock and can invest in the redesign of their showroom, while saving kitchens from landfill.

The company has recieved two lots of funding from Europe, based on its sustainability credentials, with the first lot of funding working with Liverpool John Moore University to develop a carbon calculator.

Lord said: “Very soon, on our website, we will be able to track how much carbon we are saving every  month. When you consider we are selling 80 kitchens a month, [saving] six tonnes of carbon per kitchen, each kitchen will allow a family of four to live carbon neutral for a year. There’s a lot of impact there.”

She added: “Working with the university has led to extra funding, so we have a £120,000 grant from the Government for growth.”

The next stage of the company is looking at biomass to generate money from kitchens that cannot be reused.