Your Kitchen – Your Home
Interview with Axel Heitmann, Managing Director of Kueche 24 GmbH & Co. KG
Long gone are the days when the kitchen was merely a place where food was prepared. Today, in most cases, the kitchen is the center of the house or apartment. The modern kitchen islands invite people to stand together, to exchange ideas, and enjoy snacks and drinks. Kueche 24 GmbH & Co. KG from Herford has therefore dedicated itself to designing kitchens that are living spaces with a feel-good character. Company founder and Managing Director Axel Heitmann focuses on quality from planning to installation and on the symbiosis of brick-and-mortar and online retail.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Heitmann, the past years have been economically challenging. How has Kueche 24 developed during these exciting years?
Axel Heitmann: We have been around since 2001 and have continuously evolved over the years. In the last five years, we have grown physically and online, with 22 employees and a two-digit million turnover, having locations in Herford and Bielefeld. We are the highest-grossing kitchen studio in Ostwestfalen-Lippe.
Wirtschaftsforum: What do you attribute your success to?
Axel Heitmann: Our market is developing very rapidly. It's not just about price, but more importantly about visibility and service.
Wirtschaftsforum: How do your customers find you?
Axel Heitmann: Primarily, our customers find us through organic searches on Google. Additionally, we benefit greatly from recommendations by satisfied customers. About 90% of our customers come to us through recommendations. Over the years, we have built a network that we maintain. For example, we invite customers to our cooking school to get to know them. We are also involved in clubs, such as DSC Arminia Bielefeld, and in various smaller regional women's handball and men's soccer teams in the Herford or Bielefeld area. Furthermore, we organize incentive trips with developers or end customers. It is important to us to create positive experiences and memories. That is why we prefer to spend our marketing budget directly with the customer.
Wirtschaftsforum: You mentioned service as another important aspect besides visibility. What does that mean for you?
Axel Heitmann: We offer our customers the best possible service along the entire customer journey. This begins in sales, where we work exclusively with well-trained staff who can competently advise our customers according to their individual preferences. About 80% of our kitchen planners are interior designers or very well trained employees with long industry experience. They have a thorough knowledge and understanding of space.
Ultimately, one is not only planning appliances and furniture, but an entire room. Another important aspect is the installation. Kitchens are complex and consist of several thousand individual parts. Here, precision is required. Unlike many other providers, we work with our own installers and are of course available to our customers after installation, should any problems arise. In such cases, we generally respond with generosity and leniency. Our customers should enjoy our kitchens and have no problems.
Wirtschaftsforum: Are you also affected by the shortage of skilled workers?
Axel Heitmann: Especially qualified kitchen planners and installers are scarce. About 80% of our kitchen planners are interior designers or very experienced kitchen planners from the industry. For the most part, we employ our own installers and also train them. Only to cope with peaks do we work with installers with whom we have long-standing good experience. Overall, it is not easy to find good people. Therefore, we are now working on making our service concept newer and leaner. For instance, we have programmed a tool through which customers can simply send their service requests as a picture, text, or voice message via WhatsApp and email to us. In this case, we are well informed and can handle the service case optimally. The data remains accessible to the customer for years. So, they always have all the data of their kitchen at hand.
Wirtschaftsforum: What trends do you see in the market? Where is it heading?
Axel Heitmann: Generally, customers have become more demanding. Design is an important aspect today. Handle-less and sleek kitchens are in trend. Due to the internet, buyers are often very well informed beforehand. Additionally, there is a trend towards a central home furnishing advisor.
Wirtschaftsforum: How do you, as a kitchen expert, respond to this trend?
Axel Heitmann: The kitchen is our core competency and that will remain so. But we can imagine supporting our customers beyond that. We are currently involved in a project where we are equipping 80 apartments for hospital staff. In addition to the kitchen, we are also supplying the bathroom furniture, beds, and sideboards. This is the first time that we are fully furnishing a property. I can well imagine that we will be more strongly positioned in this area in the future.