Lizzie Beesley, head of product strategy and development at Danesmoor Group, talks to Nicola Hanley about PWS’ upcoming product launch and how it caters for the ever-more discerning homeowner.
It’s no secret that consumers are demanding more from their kitchens than ever before as they become better educated about what’s available. “Historically they would have gone into a showroom and the retailer would have guided them,” says Lizzie Beesley, head of product strategy and development at the Danesmoor Group, the parent company behind distributor PWS. "But now their journey starts on social media and they migrate online for more info. So they’re coming into showrooms with an aesthetic expectation and our portfolio has had to evolve to that new dynamic and the current change in spending habits.”
As well as being more knowledgeable, homeowners have become more savvy too, particularly in the current economic climate, and it’s changing their priorities. “What they want is very much driven by their budget. Consumers still want the key elements of a kitchen – premium work surfaces and appliances – but are compromising in terms of elements of frontals. So they may spend less on a frontal and more on other elements such as our premium storage,” notes Beesley. “It’s a far more sophisticated consumer that we’ve had to evolve to support.”
It’s meant that PWS has had to expand its collection to offer a greater choice of colour as homeowners use it more to personalise their kitchens. “Now we have huge amounts of colour in our portfolio. We’re finding that we need to offer far more in each of the families – historically it would have been 3 or 5 colours and now we have at least 8 in stock,” says Beesley. “Portfolio management has become more about choice but it’s not just choice in terms of aesthetics, it’s also in terms of good, better, best in pricing.”
Balancing choice with stock is an ongoing challenge and it’s one that PWS is responding to. “Choice and speed to market are so important now. That is changing the way people look at their product portfolios. How do you balance that instantness with choice? That is probably our biggest conundrum. The market has changed and we’re not going to go back to minimal choice. We are generalists so we need to make sure our portfolio covers all segments. At every level of the market there’s a different challenge.”
As part of PWS’ commitment to aligning its portfolio to meet the growing demand for the ‘good, better, best’ pricing, it's also extending its Arlo range with a lower cost matt option and expanding its made-to-order range. “We’re bringing in Stripe, which is a reeded board, into our Unity made-to-order range as it’s where we can put a lot of key trends, whether that’s colour or texture, safely. With trends we never know how long they will last so it’s about having them but being able to remove them when they’re no longer relevant.”
To try and manage this, PWS does multiple developments throughout the year. Currently it is preparing to kick off 2025 by launching a raft of new additions. So what can retailers expect to see? Joining Belsay, its entry-level woodgrain family, will be Taupe Grey, a warm neutral. “Although they’re still popular, we’re seeing a move away from the very cool greys towards these warm neutrals and that's a big area for us. Listening to our retailers they want that commercial longevity for the customer.”
Three new paint colours – Meadow Well, Fawn and Sea Glass – are joining its paint-to-order palette for its more premium, core customers and new ceramic worktops will join its Strata collection. “Ceramic is a growing area and the range has been carefully balanced to offer our customers a wide selection of finishes,” says Beesley. “We’re finding worktops are carrying the character of the kitchen more now.”
More launches will come as we move through 2025 and Beesley indicates that texture will play a significant part.” We are starting to see the entrance of woodgrain and we’re currently working through how we bring it back into our portfolio. We have it in our made-to-order but that might be something we see making its way into our portfolio in 2025. We’re seeing a growth in natural finishes and it works really well in kitchen settings.
“Next year we’ll really focus on our core and our premium ranges. We’re seeing lots of changes in those areas and that will go in everything. We’ll look at the entire collections again to give the best choices for our customer base.”
