New season, new format!

The kbbreview Podcast is back for Season 16 and we’re shaking things up. For the first time, host Andy Davies is joined by a regular panel of top retailers - Justine Bullock, Liz Pantling-Jones, Trevor Scott and Nick Warrington - bringing you weekly, frontline insights from the world of independent KBB retail.

We’re kicking off with a three-part series on how the industry has transformed since Covid. First up: the consumer. What do today’s customers really want? How have their expectations shifted? Do they understand the true cost of a kitchen or bathroom - and how should you communicate with them?

Plus, don’t miss your chance to shine, the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2026 are now open for entries. It’s free, it’s huge, and it could be you lifting one of those famous trophies. All the info you need is at kbbreview.com/awards

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We catch up with Katie to talk Showerwall, product development and life at its new home Bathroom Brands...

Welcome to a very special bonus episode of The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and he met up with Katie Cope, Showerwall's current head, at the recent InstallerSHOW.

This is a really interesting conversation for a couple of reasons - wall panelling is a proper growth area in the bathroom so where does she think it is and where it's going?And how is Showerwall doing since it was acquired by Bathroom Brands from IDS after that company went into administration?

It was a big move for Bathroom Brands but wall panels are a growing market so you can see why it wanted to bring in a name like Showerwall to add to its already impressive portfolio.

You can find out more about Showerwall at showerwall.co.uk

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We meet the dynamic founders of one the fastest growing networks of kitchen retail franchises - and this one is 100% British.

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and he's out and about again, this time in Kirby-in-Ashfield just outside Nottingham.

Andy is meeting brothers Scott and Ben Slater and their company Kesseler. A really interesting British kitchen manufacturer AND retailer. Started about 15 years ago as a straight supplier, they moved into their own retail franchising brand just a few years ago and now have nearly 20 showrooms across the country.

As we have discussed on this very podcast before franchising is really building a significant momentum - Kutchenhaus, Nolte, Schmidt, and Magnet are just a few but Kesseler is slightly different as it is distinctly British.

But that's not all, as we will here, they also run Online-Bedrooms.co.uk - an increasingly successful brand that sells fitted bedroom furniture, well, online.

So how have they done it? What's their strategy? How do you build a retail brand from scratch? And how many Kesseler showrooms do they actually want?

Such an interesting story from two real forward-thinkers!

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We meet the legendary interior designer to talk about his new kitchen range and his (very candid) thoughts on design and retail.

Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and today we're in a dreary old loft in South London and our challenge is to turn this empty bit of audio space into a fully-fledged podcast episode in just 45 minutes BUT we only have a budget of 20p, some MDF, a bag of screws and a router.

And yes, today we're talking to Changing Rooms legend Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen - but of course we're doing him a massive disservice by limiting his extensive career to just that one show, no matter how impactful it was.

He was - and is - an extremely accomplished interior designer of course, but he has also been educating the public about design on TV for, brace yourself, nearly 30 years - Changing Rooms started in 1996.

After a bit of back-and-forth with manufacturers, he has just designed and launched his own kitchen range - called Quintessential - specifically for independent kitchen showrooms and, as you'll hear in this interview, he LOVES independent kitchen showrooms.

This is, genuinely, a fantastic interview - mainly probably because it's actually Andy's kbbreview colleague George Dean doing it - and Laurence is as fabulous as you would expect but he is also incredibly candid and open about his thoughts on kitchen retail AND his previous endorsement deals with multiples - listen out for the bit where he gets slow hand-clapped on a plane thanks to his association with Moben.

It's all brilliant stuff and it's clear that he really does love design and what it can achieve if done properly and with conviction so we really can't recommend this one highly enough!

So over to George Dean and Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen…

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Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host as always is Andy Davies.

Neptune has grown from a humble start in the 1990s to become one of the UK’s most distinctive premium home and kitchen brands. With around 30 of its own showrooms and 80 more retail partners it has become one of the largest independent kitchen retail networks in the UK with little fanfare.

And 'brand' is the most important word. Neptune, as far as co-founder John Sims-Hilditch is concerned, means something more than just a logo or a name, it is a philosophy that permeates every aspect of the business.

Andy went to meet him at the company's impressive HQ and showroom just outside Swindon...

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Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this episode comes LIVE from the InstallerSHOW 2025.

This is the third and final LIVE episode we recorded at the show and we’re finishing with a question every single KBB showroom has on their mind– what should I be doing with social media?

And in particular we’re looking at small to medium sized showrooms that don’t have social media teams and instead are trying to fit it into the rest of their very busy days. So if you’re time-poor and have limited resource – this is the episode for you.

• What works and what doesn’t?
• Where should you be spending that limited time and resource most effectively
• How do you even know it’s working?

We have some top experts from the frontline to talk it all through, Kira Blume from Krantz Designs, Adam Jones from Cwtch Haus and Hayley Simmons from agency KBB Marketing.

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Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and we are LIVE at the InstallerShow 2025!

This is our second of three shows we did at the show, and this is such an important one as its about an area that gets to the heart of what good kitchen and bathroom design is all about – the combination of style, aesthetics and practical solutions tailored to the needs of the individual, whatever they may be.

And for those with needs that involve limitations in physicality or, as we will hear, cognitive ability, their designers and installers need to have the knowledge to be able to meet them.

So, this is an area that is often called ‘accessible or multi-generational design’ and we’re scratching the surface a little bit with three top experts.

Jo Jeyes from Joanne Jeyes Interiors - an interior designer specialising in dementia

Adam Thomas from the Adam Thomas Consultancy – specialist in all areas of accessible design, especially for wheelchair users

Tony Passmore from The Passmore Group - specialist in accessible bathroom design and adaptation

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Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this episode was recorded LIVE today (June 24, 2025) at the InstallerSHOW 2025.

Today we’re talking about the most important topic of all at the moment – and that’s the health of the kbb independent retailer market after a difficult couple of years.

We did a snapshot survey of retailers a couple of months ago and the results were very mixed. Nearly a quarter said they're more confident than ever about the health of their business, while one in five said they are worried or extremely worried about the future of their business…

Nearly half said they expected the market to get better before the end of the year, but 15% still say they think the market will get worse in 2025.

So what’s going on?

Joining Andy today were top retailers, and friends of the show Trevor Scott from RFK in Rugby; Tina Riley from Modern Homes in Leamington Spa; Luke Wedgbury from Coalville Kitchens in Coalville and Liz Pantling-Jones from Lima Kitchens in Milton Keynes.

We're talking....

• How their business is right now
• How increases in supplier prices are affecting their business
• Whether supplier service levels have dropped as they manage their own costs
• How consumers are behaving and whether they're decision making process continues to drag
• How difficult it is to find good staff - including installers
• How they're tackling the market head on to drive footfall and leads

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