Regarded as being one of the UK's fastest growing retail chains, Wren kitchens has invested £2.8m in a fleet of 43 new 18-tonne lorries to be based at its head offices in Howden, East Yorkshire, not ‘Howdens’ as in the rival kitchen company.
The move by Wren, which currently employs some 1,100 people nationwide, is said to create up to 90 new jobs at the UK kitchen company. The new fleet will help service an increased number of orders from Wren's home interiors customers, driven by a rapid roll-out of new stores across the country.
There are currently 38 Wren outlets in the UK with a further 12 scheduled for launch this year and Operations director Kev Selby said: "Customers are turning to Wren because no other company in the market offers the same combination of value, choice and quality. The new fleet represents a significant investment in the future for Wren Kitchens and Bedrooms and is further evidence of how the business is growing.”
In such fiercely competitive times, with the debate about German kitchens, English kitchens and the manufacturing behind them rife, Selby continued;
"We are a 100 per cent privately owned family business and we don't borrow a penny from any bank or financial institution. Rather than take money out of the business, we invest for the future, which enables us to fund major projects such as this expansion of our delivery capabilities."
Wren Kitchens has been manufacturing kitchens for the UK and US markets for 35 years and it is now the UK's fastest growing designer, manufacturer and retailer of fully assembled kitchen units, giving rivals PWS (owner of brands Second Nature, Metris and 1909 Kitchens), Mark II Distribution (think formerly Tesco's Kitchens) and Symphony a run for their money, but that all four UK manufacturers are reporting growth and investment is surely good for UK manufacturing at large.
Wrens's UK operations have a uniquely British heritage with every kitchen cabinet and individual piece of bedroom furniture it sells being made at one of its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire which Wren says, it keeps prices affordable without compromising any of the quality customers expect when they buy a new kitchen or bedroom.
The business is also unusual among kitchen and bedroom retailers in that all Wren kitchen units are delivered to customers fully assembled, with high-end design features such as soft-closing doors and drawers coming as standard, much like the German brands such as Schuller kitchens, Hacker, Nobilia, and the like which are the subject of much debate at the moment.
