Duckworths focus on kitchens

Duckworths Appliances in Napier are becoming specialist kitchenware sellers for Kitchen Things after "aggressive" competitors made margins too slim.

Director Rob Duckworth said with the new store, Duckworths is doing something his competitors "just don't know how to do".

"They carry a minuscule range of that kind of product and they've got young guys who have no knowledge and no interest in that type of product," he said.

Visitors to the remodelled store in Napier's Munroe St will see about 120 wall ovens, 40 free-standing ovens, 100 hobs, 50 range hoods and more.

"Everything is going to be displayed in a kitchen setting so you can see how it is going to look and it will all be wired up so we can demonstrate how everything works."

He said the move was "not as big as you would think".

We were probably the best in the Bay for knowledge of cooking already but every one of us has been to Auckland for four days of intensive training, so we are definitely the best now.

He said the training cost "a bloody fortune" but was well worth it.

"Technology has moved on as fast with ovens as it has with TVs.

"We are running working demonstrations all the time so people can have a demonstration before they buy and they can also have a demonstration after they buy."

While the Munroe St store has been rebuilt for the new range, old stock has been sold in a temporary premises.

"We are keeping another store called Duckworth's Appliance Outlet in Onekawa."

The 100 Per Cent Duckworths Appliances Hastings store was first to feel the pressure from competing retailers.

"The 100 Per Cent model didn't work in a city where you had an aggressive Leemings and an aggressive Harveys.

"We couldn't buy well enough across the board, particularly in TV and IT, to make money with that model."

He said the Kitchen Things group had significant buying power.

His store is the number 12 store in New Zealand and another 10 are being planned.

"The whole theory is you have the whole range of a brand for sale so the public can really choose."