A heads up on Howden discounts please

tonygold

Hi all

Around 8 years ago I purchased a kitchen from Howdens (gloss white handleless) units only, no work tops or appliances. I purchased through the account of a builder at the time who has since retired. The discounts I received were in the region of 80% off of retail because of the mad retail prices Howdens list at.

Fast forward to now and my daughter is after a large kitchen refit and the installer recommended by her local branch of Howdens has indicated a discount to her of 30% off of list price. Unless Howdens have drastically altered their price structure, this seems like a very small discount and a big earner for the installer on the supply side of the deal. I appreciate he would add something on for himself so really just asking what are the ball park going rates now as I would hate her to be taken advantage of?

Many thanks for any info.

Grumpy_chap

Can the installer you used 8 years ago recommend someone?

Howdens discounts vary between builders and then builders can vary how much they pass on to the consumer.

DanDare999

I would concentrate on the overall price, quality of the kitchen and how price/quality compares to others. Rather than the mad retail price and percentage discount. 

Doozergirl

They have indeed changed their pricing structure.  

FreeBear

Grumpy_chap said: Howdens discounts vary between builders and then builders can vary how much they pass on to the consumer.

Just one of many reasons I dislike Howdens, Magnet, and others...

plumb1_2

I get between 20-80% discount,  but it’s the overall price you need. And you can always haggle and get further discount. They knocked a further £460 (10%)off a kitchen for me 3 weeks ago.

tonygold

Doozergirl said:

They have indeed changed their pricing structure.  

hi doozer
in what way? have they reduced their list prices so the builders do not get 80% anymore? In that case would a 30% discount offered by the fitter be a reasonable discount?
many thanks.

TELLIT01

Doozergirl said:

They have indeed changed their pricing structure.  

You mean they actually had a pricing structure previously? 

When we got our kitchen I sat with the designer while she priced up the various options.  If she thought an item was too expensive she simply applied a bigger discount to get what she called 'a sensible price'.  At the end of the day we were happy with the price for the product, but no way would we have considered paying the list price.

chrisw

You have to be a bit careful with the quality of the bits they are providing.

 I managed to get them down to match a B&Q price but then found they'd substituted a number of cheaper items to get down to that price. Items like sink, taps, drawers and their runners where it's difficult to judge the quality from their catalogue, so ended up paying extra to beef them up again.

Doozergirl

tonygold said:

Doozergirl said:

They have indeed changed their pricing structure.  

hi doozer
in what way? have they reduced their list prices so the builders do not get 80% anymore? In that case would a 30% discount offered by the fitter be a reasonable discount?
many thanks.

Yes, and yes.  The last kitchen we bought in September was 30% on units and it doesn't look unreasonable taking into account that the price of building materials is now ridiculous and there's no mental benchmark anyone.  

With the old RRP you'd know you were paying a fortune for a solitary unit at a 30% discount.