Is There a Future for the Uk?s Independent Cookshops?

Since the 1960’s, there has been a steady growth in the number of independent specialist cookshops in the UK. In fact, at the last count, there were in excess of 600 retailers who would place themselves in this category. Rather bizarrely for a retail sector that often feels very traditional, this makes cookshops one of the newest and fastest-growing retail areas of the past 50 years.

This rapid development was fuelled by the positive impact of TV-based cookery programmes, starting with Fanny Craddock and the Galloping Gourmet, as well as a general awakening of interest in cooking across the UK as a whole. There is also no doubt that cookshops have benefitted from the decline in independent hardware stores that were often the traditional purveyors of pans and cake tins in the UK.

However, over the past 10 years, even the nature of cookshops themselves has changed. Whilst the majority still fit the notion of the cookshop as a place stuffed with cake tins, utensils and ceiling racks and in which it’s often impossible to discern the original fixtures and fittings as they groan under the weight of yet more gadgets, some are different.

Forward-thinking operators such as Cooks&Kitchens, Colanders and Steamer Trading have created pared-back contemporary interiors where products can ‘breathe’. These cookshops are as likely to stock a designer Italian fruit bowl as a balloon whisk.

However, even as the cookshop itself starts to become a broader-based entity with owners pitching differing concepts to meet perceived needs, there are large-scale changes underway that may well undermine the current dynamism in the sector.

First among these is the steady erosion of margins and market share among specialist independents as a result of ‘housewares’ becoming a key target for UK supermarkets. Housewares offers poor margins compared to most consumer durables, but much better margins than most food products. The result is that supermarkets (and other homewares operators like Wilkinsons) have taken significant market share in housewares, and depressed margins at the same time.

The second fundamental change has been the impact of online sales. Many housewares products, such as specialist kitchen knives, lend themselves to online selling as stockists are not that common and the products can be identified by code numbers (so there’s no risk of getting the wrong item).

Initially, some independent cookshops did very well out of online sales, particularly if they stocked exclusive brands and had well-designed websites (see www.cooksandkitchens.co.uk for an example of this). Discounting was not really an issue as customers were simply happy to be able to buy a product easily.

However, this situation has altered dramatically in the past two years, driven by a couple of very visible developments.

Firstly, the high street names that were slow to understand the web at first have developed credible online propositions underpinned by trusted branding. For example, John Lewis is now a formidable player in the online housewares market and has achieved this by leading with their brand credentials and integrating it with their store offering. There are many better sites to navigate, but few that can match the gravitas and photography budget.

It’s hardly a surprise then that, from very humble beginnings, high street multiples now account for just over 50% of online consumer spending.

 

The second feature is the powerful position that marketplaces and price comparison engines have taken in housewares. A good example is Amazon.

 

If we go back a year or so, it was unusual to see any cookshop products on Amazon other than basics or TV-promoted items. You certainly wouldn’t find continental design-led brands or £100+ kitchen knives.

 

That’s now changed, in what is probably the biggest long-term challenge to independent cookshops. Not only does Amazon now feature top-end brands at rock-bottom prices, it’s marketplace concept has encouraged online cookshop operators to scrap it out with each other to achieve the lowest price. This is the perfect scenario for consumers as, for the time-being, they can try-out products in a cookshop and then buy them easily and cheaply from a single website.

These are profound challenges for the independent specialist and ones that very few have yet managed to address. With or without the recession that’s currently gripping retail, it’s clear that the current number of cookshops in the UK may represent a high-water mark for the sector and that the survivors will, on average, look quite different to the past.