Howdens Factsheet
An overview of Howdens
To supply from local stock nationwide the small builder's ever-changing, routine, integrated kitchen and joinery requirements, assuring best local price, no-call-back quality and confidential trade terms...and to provide the builder's customer with enough choice, advice and aftersales to make a home to be proud of.
Howdens Factsheet
Howdens knows what it stands for: to help our trade customers achieve exceptional results for their customers and to profit from doing so. When our customers succeed, we succeed.
775
Depots
(includes 25 French and 2 Belgian depots)
£261m
2019 Profit
profit before tax (2018: £239m)
£1.6bn
2019 Revenue
revenue (2018: £1.5bn)
A foundation for success
Our business thrives on three core principles that are underpinned by our entrepreneurial culture. These include our trade service and convenience, product leadership, and trade value.
UK's Number 1 Trade Kitchen Supplier
- Howdens was founded in 1995 and has grown rapidly. In 2019, Howdens reported annual sales of around £1.6bn, with profit before tax of £260.7m. Howdens operates more than 700 depots across the UK, and sees scope for up to 850 depots
- Howdens addresses the 'done for you' market, selling kitchens and joinery from local depots exclusively to trade professionals, who then install them for end-users in all parts of the UK market - owner occupiers, private landlords, local authorities, housing trusts and small developers
- Howdens supplies over 470,000 account holders, all building trade professionals, with 4.4 million kitchen cabinets, 2.5 million doors and 1m worktops and breakfast bars each year
- Howdens offers over 100 kitchen styles organised into design 'families' for easy comparison and selection. As well as kitchen cabinets and frontals, Howdens sells appliances, sinks, taps, worktops, flooring, hardware, lighting and a wide range of joinery doors, skirting and architraves that co-ordinate with the different range
Financial highlights
| £m unless stated | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuing operations (before exceptional items) | |||
| Revenue - Group | 1,403.8 | 1,511.3 | 1,583.6 |
| Revenue - UK depots | 1,372.0 | 1,477.3 | 1,550.3 |
| Gross margin | 63.3% | 61.7% | 62.3% |
| Operating profit | 234.4 | 240.1 | 260.0 |
| Profit before tax | 232.2 | 238.5 | 260.7 |
| Basic earnings per share | 29.9p | 31.3p | 35.0 |
| Dividend per share | 11.1p | 11.6p | 13.0p |
| Net cash at year-end | 241.1 | 231.3 | 267.4 |
| Number of depots (UK) | 661 | 694 | 732 |
1. Focus on one customer
Howdens is focused solely on the small builder and everything the business does is geared towards making the builder's life easier. Howdens offers builders a relevant, well-designed, high-quality range of kitchens, together with appliances, joinery, flooring and hardware, via trade-only depots that are always in stock. The builder benefits from a confidential discount and good credit terms that allow him to manage his business and determine an appropriate margin for each job he undertakes.
2. Entrepreneurialism, accountability and control
Each of our local depots are dedicated to helping local tradespeople build their businesses. The depot manager’s autonomy is a key element of Howdens’ business model. Depot managers hire their own staff, do their own local marketing, set local pricing, manage the level of discount applied to their account holders and manage their own stock levels to suit their own local customers.
3. Manufacturing and Design
Our own supply chain serve over 700 local depots nationwide. This means our distribution operation has to be attuned to the different needs of around 700 depots. No two deliveries are alike, and each one must be correct, complete and on time.Trusted supplier relationships and efficient, sustainable UK manufacturing and distribution helps ensure consistent product quality and availability at the lowest cost. We make what it makes sense to make, and we buy what it makes sense to buy.
UK's Number 1 Trade Kitchen Supplier
Howdens supply kitchen and joinery products to over 470,000 trade professionals, including 4.4 million kitchen cabinets, 2.5 million doors and 1m worktops and breakfast bars each year. We are a highly profitable, cash-generative business with significant scope for further growth. The business has identified scope for up to 850 depots in the UK, in 2019 we opened 38 new depots, including five in Northern Ireland. Howdens also expects to be able to realise further growth from the 25% of depots that are not yet mature, and to effect continuing performance improvements across its depot portfolio. Howdens benefits from a flexible, scalable infrastructure that will allow it to deliver further efficiencies as the business grows.
Contacts
Media Enquiries
Journalists should contact:
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
For image requests, please contact:
Investor Relations
Institutional investors and analysts should contact:
Guy Stainer
Head of Investor Relations
Howden Joinery Group Plc
40 Portman Square
London
W1H 6LT
Tel: 020 7535 1164
Email: [email protected]