The kbbreview Podcast

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode 9 of Season 14. And we've been really looking forward to this episode, as we're catching up with our Adopted Retailers. In the magazine every month, we've been following the fortunes of three kbb retailers with three very different backgrounds, experiences and plans for the future.  We last spoke to them here on th...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode Eight of Season 14. We're heading into the long Easter weekend of course, which will be a nice break before the madness of next begins as we jet off to Blackpool for the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards next Thursday. And by 'jet off' I mean the train. You don't usually have to change at Preston if you're in a jet....

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies as always. Today we're looking at life as an independent retailer - are rises in the costs of running your business such as national insurance and business rates simply pricing you out of the real market? What is the future of the High Street? How are consumers changing? What is the role of local and central government and - always one for...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, this is Episode Six of Season 14 and your host is managing editor Andy Davies. Today we're looking at an area that gets to the heart of what good design is all about. Understanding and interpreting the needs of those that are going to use the kitchen or bathroom every day is a vital part of any brief - and that includes not just factoring in extended family and fr...

Welcome to another very special episode of The kbbreview Podcast all about the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2025 . The event is now less than a month away! On Thursday, April 24th hundreds of the industry's leading retailers, designers, suppliers, influencers and opinion-formers will arrive in Blackpool for the biggest evening of the year. As the excitement builds, in this episode we're ta...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast , your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode 5 of Season 14 - which means we're officially halfway through the series. This week we're delving into a subject that, slowly but surely, is becoming more common - freelance KBB designers. They're not retailers in the classic definition of the word, they don't have showrooms, but they will design kitchens or bathrooms...

Welcome to another special Rising Star episode of The kbbreview Podcast. We’ve teamed up with Blum to find the upcoming stars of kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom retail and this is our eighth and final Rising Star for 2025 - Aidan Parish, a fitter at Lima Kitchens in Milton Keynes. When Aidan joined the Lima Kitchens team around 18 months ago, it wasn’t just his technical skills that impressed desig...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode Four of Season 14. At kbbreview, we talk to a lot of retailers and if there's one lament that comes up again and again it's that they donʼt make a decent margin on appliances. So if the margins are so tight for what is a big part of the customer's budget, is it really worth selling them at all?  This is a really, r...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode Three of Season 14. Today we're looking at something which asks a very difficult existential question of independent KBB retailers - do you ever think what might happen if you got into financial difficulty and couldn't finish your clients project? In particular, we're looking at whether or not retailers should have some...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host today is editor-at-large Rebecca Nottingham and this is another of our very special Rising Star episodes where we meet the upcoming superstars of kitchen and bathroom retail all under the age of 30. Between August 2024 and March 2025 we’re picking a monthly Rising Star to feature in the magazine, online and this very podcast. Those eight monthly winners...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies as always and this is the second episode of Season 14. This week we've got a great, and very candid, interview with Sharon Wallis, the UK head of one of most iconic and longest-established kitchen furniture brands you can find - Poggenpohl. It has a long pedigree, of course, established as it was in 1892 in Germany by Friedemir Poggenpohl...

Welcome to The Kbbreview Podcast and another special episode all about the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2025 . Your host as always is Matt Baker and today we’re going to shine a spotlight on the design categories and take another look into the minds of our design judges to see what they thought of this year’s entries, what themes they spotted, and how much they get out of the process thems...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and after a Christmas break that has somehow reached the end of February we are back with a brand new season. It's Season 14 and we'll be with you right up to the end of April but in this first episode we're taking a look at an issue thornier than a garden full of brambles - and that's paying for displays. Who do YOU think should foot the bill - the retailer or the...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and another of our very special Rising Star episodes where we meet the upcoming superstars of kitchen and bathroom retail all under the age of 30. Your host is editor-at-large Rebecca Nottingham and between August 2024 and March 2025 we’re picking a monthly Rising Star to feature in the magazine, online and this very podcast. Those eight monthly winners then become...

Welcome to the latest of our special awards episodes of The kbbreview Podcast all about the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2025 . Last month, right before the festive break, we announced the shortlist and so today we’re talking to some of those finalists to hear a little bit about why they entered and what it means to them ahead of the second stage of judging. We have for New Kitchen Retaile...

Welcome to the very special episode of The kbbreview Podcast where we will reveal the full shortlist for the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2025. Your hosts are kbbreview's Matt Baker and Andrew Davies and they will exclusively announce who the finalists are for all our design and retail categories. YOU won't get this list anywhere else until next week so don't miss it! Huge thanks to our Aw...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is editor-at-large Rebecca Nottingham for another of our very special Rising Star episodes where we meet the upcoming superstars of kitchen and bathroom retail.   Between August 2024 and March 2025 we’ll be picking a monthly Rising Star to feature in the magazine, online and this very podcast. Those eight monthly winners then become the shortli...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and another of our very special Insights mini-series looking ahead to 2025. Your host is Andy Davies and we've partnered up with some key kitchen and bathroom brands to get their take on 2024 as it draws to a close AND their views on how the market might shape up in 2025. Where are the opportunities? Where is the growth? What might be the pitfalls? And where is the...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and another of our very special Insights mini-series looking ahead to 2025. Your host is Andy Davies and we've partnered up with some key kitchen and bathroom brands to get their take on 2024 as it draws to a close AND their views on how the market might shape up in 2025. Where are the opportunities? Where is the growth? What might be the pitfalls? And where is the...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and another of our very special Insights mini-series looking ahead to 2025. I'm Andy Davies and we've partnered up with some key kitchen and bathroom brands to get their take on 2024 as it draws to a close AND their views on how the market might shape up in 2025. Where are the opportunities? Where is the growth? What might be the pitfalls? And where is the focus fo...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and another of our very special Insights mini-series looking ahead to 2025. We've partnered up with some key kitchen and bathroom brands to get their take on 2024 as it draws to a close AND their views on how the market might shape up in 2025. Where are the opportunities? Where is the growth? What might be the pitfalls? And where is the focus for them? It's an inva...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast and the first episode of this very special Insights mini-series looking ahead to 2025. We've partnered up with some key kitchen and bathroom brands to get their take on 2024 as it draws to a close AND their views on how the market might shape up in 2025. Where are the opportunities? Where is the growth? What might be the pitfalls? And where is the focus for them? I...

Welcome to The Kbbreview Podcast and another of our special episodes around the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2025 . This month’s episode is a peek behind the curtain of the awards, as we have a chat with some of the judges, both in the retail business categories and the design categories. We’ll find out about the approach to judging and interpreting the criteria, and what the judges expect...

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is editor-at-large Rebecca Nottingham and this is another of our very special Rising Star episodes where we meet the upcoming superstars of kitchen and bathroom retail.   Between August 2024 and March 2025 we’ll be picking a monthly Rising Star to feature in the magazine, online and this very podcast. Those eight monthly winners then become the...

Welcome to the kbbreview Podcast and this is Episode Ten and the last official episode of Season 13. Season 14 will officially start in the New Year but we'll actually be back in December with a special mini-series looking ahead to 2025 AND, of course, the now legendary episode where we reveal the shortlist for the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards 2025 (entries close on November 14th!) In this...