The Used Kitchen Co: Lifecycle of a Kitchen

kbb Birmingham has teamed up with The Used Kitchen Company for another year to promote sustainability at the show and beyond. 

In order to shine a light on this topic, we spoke to Looeeze Grossman, Founder and CEO of The Used Kitchen Company about the business to understand how it all works and what the lifecycle of a used kitchen really looks like.

The Used Kitchen Company Limited has a heritage stretching back to 2005, when the concept was launched around kitchen recycling in the UK. 

“Since then, The Used Kitchen Company has continually been the thought-leader in this field and is now the longest-established platform for selling used and ex-display kitchens in the UK. 16 years later, we have been proud to have saved some 20,000 tonnes of waste from landfill, sell for over 1,000 showrooms nationwide, have sold thousands of kitchens across the country and beyond, have nearly 30,000 registered buyers and receive more than 100,000 hits a week through Google,” Grossman comments.

Grossman divulges that their clients range from property developers and architects to private individuals and celebrities, they have a very powerful platform to influence both the wider industry. 

Leicht Kitchen: A Case Study

“We are approached daily with ex-display and used kitchens from showrooms and private sellers nationwide. Potential sellers will contact us through the website or by phone with their kitchens.

These kitchens are all vetted by our kitchen specialists, photographed and measured in preparation to be listed on the website. Our team will then prepare the listing, send it out on our newsletter and spread the word on our social media,” she says.

According to Grossman, potential buyers will often want to view the kitchens prior to purchase and their company will arrange all the viewings, answer enquiries, coordinate the sale, payment and dismantle and collection at a date that suits the seller.

“A great example is this Leicht Kitchen [pictured], which we sold on behalf of Hubble Kitchens in Chichester. The sale included furniture, Caesarstone raw concrete worktops and Siemens appliances. The buyers of this kitchen travelled over 100 miles from Bridgwater to view the kitchen and instantly knew it would be perfect for their new extension.”

The showroom agreed to dismantle and deliver it to Somerset, and the buyer was happy to wait for Hubble’s new displays to arrive before taking delivery. The kitchen was installed in their new extension and has become the hub of their family home.

The Importance of Recycling

The industry has proved in recent years to have taken sustainability really seriously, and The Used Kitchen Company has seen a huge increase in the selling of displays. The use of their ‘Kitchen Passport’ throughout by a growing number of retailers, and more recently, an influx of showrooms encouraging their customers to recycle their old kitchens too. All in all, great news for reducing landfill.

Grossman comments: “Manufacturers too have made great progress with the products and processes being used in the manufacturing of kitchens, and I feel, as an industry, we are taking great steps towards a far more sustainable future.”