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16 Oct 2026
Trade Kitchens vs. Howdens: Why More Fitters Are Ordering Online Instead of Queuing at the Branch
By Dan Whitfield, Trade Supply Editor — 12 years fitting kitchens before moving into trade-supply journalism | Reviewed by the Trade Kitchens editorial team | Updated 8 August 2026
If you fit kitchens for a living, you already know the Howdens routine: drive to the depot, wait to be served, and hope the units you need are actually on the shelf that morning. It has worked for the trade for decades — Howdens built its entire model around local depots and trade-only access, and for many fitters it remains a reliable, familiar way to buy. But a growing number of fitters and small building contractors are now placing kitchen orders online instead, without ever setting foot in a branch, checking stock across a counter, or waiting on a callback to confirm a price. This article looks at how that shift actually works in practice — what changes, what stays the same, and where a depot model like Howdens still earns its place in a fitter's supply chain.
Neither model is objectively "better" in every situation. A one-man fitting business doing a handful of local jobs a year has different priorities to a small contracting firm running several sites across a region. The point of this comparison isn't to declare a winner — it's to lay out the structural differences clearly enough that you can decide which one fits how you actually work.
Scale of the depot model: Howdens now trades from 891 UK depots as of its April 2026 trading update, up from just 14 when the company was founded in 1995, and serves more than 470,000 trade professionals nationwide. That scale is exactly why the depot experience varies so much fitter to fitter — with nearly 900 separate stock rooms and pricing desks, no two branches run identically, even under one national brand.
"Most fitters don't switch suppliers overnight — they start by pricing one job online, out of curiosity, and keep the depot account running alongside it. Within a few months, the online order becomes the default for anything planned, and the depot becomes the fallback for anything urgent." — Trade Kitchens account team, on patterns seen across new sign-ups
"On a single local job, I'll still walk into the depot — it's quicker and I know the staff. But the moment a job's outside my usual area, I want a price I can trust before I've even driven there. That's the difference in practice: one supplier for what's nearby and urgent, another for what's planned and further afield."
Mark Ellery, self-employed kitchen fitter, City & Guilds NVQ Level 2 Bench Joinery, 15 years trading in the South East — speaking to Trade Kitchens for this article
Key facts at a glance
- Howdens operates 891 UK depots as of its April 2026 trading update, serving over 470,000 trade professionals, with group revenue of £2.4bn in 2025.
- Trade Kitchens publishes nine national price groups online, viewable before you register an account.
- Howdens credit accounts offer up to 60 days to pay, set locally by your depot manager.
- Trade Kitchens quotes 2-week UK-wide delivery on made-to-order kitchens, plus a 10-year guarantee and soft-close as standard.
- Howdens has grown from 14 depots at launch in 1995 to nearly 900 today.
The Trade Kitchen-Buying Problem Every Fitter Knows
Anyone who has run a fitting business for more than a year has felt this friction. You quote a job, then have to drive to the depot to confirm stock and get an actual price — because trade pricing at Howdens is confidential and depot-specific, so you can't get a firm figure without an account and a login. Two depots twenty miles apart can quote differently for the same kitchen, and if your local branch is out of a particular door colour, your job's timeline suddenly depends on a delivery from another site rather than anything within your control.
This isn't a criticism of the model itself; it's simply what a branch-based, locally-stocked trade supplier looks like by design. The stock sits where the depot manager has ordered it, based on local demand, and pricing reflects local competition and volume. But it does mean a fitter's time is spent managing supply logistics — phone calls, depot visits, stock checks — as much as it's spent actually fitting kitchens. For a fitter running one job at a time in one town, that overhead is manageable. For a fitter juggling three or four jobs across different postcodes, it multiplies fast, because each site can mean a different depot, a different price, and a different stock position to track.
There's also the quoting problem specifically. A client wants a number before they commit, and getting a confident, accurate number from a confidential, depot-specific pricing system usually means either an account login check or a conversation with depot staff — both of which take time you'd rather spend on the tools. Multiply that by every competing quote you're putting together in a busy month, and the admin overhead becomes a real cost, even if it never shows up as a line item anywhere.
How Howdens Trade Accounts Actually Work
Cash accounts vs. credit accounts
Howdens offers two account types. A cash account means you pay for goods at the point of collection, using cash, card, or contactless — straightforward, but it means your capital is tied up the moment you take the goods, before the client has necessarily paid you anything. A credit account lets you spread payment over an agreed term — Howdens' own trade pages describe this as up to 60 days to pay, which is genuinely useful for managing cash flow on a multi-week job where the client's final payment might land well after materials go on site. Which account you're offered, and the credit limit attached to it, is decided at your local depot, based on your trading history and references.
For a fitter just starting out, this can create a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: you often need a trading history to get a meaningful credit limit, but you need materials on credit to take on the bigger jobs that build that history in the first place. Established fitters with several years on the books tend to find credit terms easier to negotiate than those newer to a depot.
Confidential, depot-specific trade pricing
Howdens is trade-only — you cannot buy without an account — and pricing is confidential, visible only once you're logged in. Because pricing is set locally, the price you're quoted can vary by depot and by region, reflecting local competitive conditions and the individual depot's own pricing discretion. This is standard practice for a branch network, and it does have an upside: a depot manager can sometimes flex on price for a loyal, regular account in a way a fixed national price list never can. The downside is predictability — a fitter working from the same spec across two different towns may end up with two different numbers, and there's no way to know that in advance without checking both.
The scale of the network makes this variability structural rather than occasional. Howdens is the UK's largest specialist trade kitchen and joinery supplier, generating £2.4 billion in group revenue in 2025 across its depot network, and is recognised as the UK's Number 1 Trade Kitchen Supplier according to Mintel's September 2025 category report. With that many depots each setting their own figures within group guidelines, a published national price list simply isn't part of how the model is built — depot discretion is a feature of the business, not an oversight.
Stock tied to your local depot; availability varies by branch
Because Howdens supplies from local stock at hundreds of depots nationwide, availability depends on what your branch happens to be holding that week. A colour or unit size that's readily available at one depot might need to come from another, which can add days to a job you'd already promised a client. Depot staff can usually source from a sister branch, but that's an extra step, and it's one you generally only discover you need once you're already at the counter trying to place the order.
Click & Collect and Anytime Ordering — still depot-dependent for stock and price
Howdens has moved to make this easier with online account management — you can view your confidential trade prices and place orders for collection 24/7 through Anytime Ordering. That's a genuine improvement on the old phone-and-queue model, and it means a fitter can place an order late in the evening and have it ready to collect the next morning. But the stock and price you're accessing online is still tied to your specific depot account, so the underlying branch-dependency doesn't go away — you're just accessing it from your phone instead of the counter. If your depot doesn't hold what you need, Anytime Ordering doesn't solve that; it just lets you find out sooner.
How Ordering Online With Trade Kitchens Works Differently
One national price structure — no depot-to-depot variation
Trade Kitchens prices every range through nine published price groups, visible to anyone using the online kitchen selector before they even open an account. There's no depot-to-depot variation, because there's no depot — one national price for a given spec, wherever the job is. A fitter quoting a job in Leeds and a job in Bristol in the same week works from the same published figures for both, which makes quoting faster and removes the guesswork of "what will this depot charge me."
Made-to-order manufacturing, not reliant on local branch stock levels
Because kitchens are made to order rather than pulled from a local shelf, availability isn't tied to what one particular site happens to be holding. You configure doors, carcass colour, and price group through the online selector, and that spec is manufactured to order — meaning colour availability doesn't depend on whether a particular branch restocked recently.
2-week UK-wide delivery regardless of location
Trade Kitchens quotes delivery within two weeks as standard, regardless of where in the UK the job is — there's no regional variation based on which depot happens to be nearest. A fitter in a rural area isn't penalised with a longer wait than a fitter working in a major city; the delivery commitment is the same nationwide. That predictability matters most when you're sequencing several trades on site — plumbers, electricians, tilers — around a single delivery date, since a firm two-week window is easier to plan a job around than a stock position that can shift day to day.
Multi-brand access (German, Italian, Turkish and UK-made) vs. a single in-house range
Rather than a single in-house range, Trade Kitchens gives access to German, Italian, Turkish and UK-manufactured brands through one account — including Nobilia (German-manufactured cabinetry), Egger (surface and finish specialist), and the in-house TKC range — with the choice of rigid (pre-assembled) or flat-pack units, including cam/dowel or screw assembly, and customer-supplied-door options (COD and CODA) for fitters who already source their own doors. This matters most for a fitter who works across a range of client budgets and styles — rather than being limited to one manufacturer's range and colour palette, there's a wider pool to draw from under a single account.
Every kitchen sold through the platform comes with soft-close doors and drawers as standard and a 10-year guarantee, regardless of price group or brand — so a fitter working from the entry-level end of the range isn't quoting a client on a lower specification of hardware than a premium order would carry.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Factor | Howdens | Trade Kitchens |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Confidential, depot-specific, visible after login | Published national price groups (1–9), visible before you open an account |
| Stock model | Local depot stock — availability varies by branch | Made to order — same availability nationwide |
| Delivery | Depot collection, or depot-to-door on selected services | 2-week delivery, UK-wide |
| Brand range | Single in-house range (Howdens/Lamona) | Multi-brand: German, Italian, Turkish, UK-made |
| Account type | Cash account, or credit account with up to 60 days to pay | Online trade account, published pricing before signup |
| Assembly options | Rigid, factory-assembled | Rigid or flat-pack, cam/dowel or screw, plus COD/CODA |
| Ordering method | Depot visit, or Anytime Ordering for collection | Fully online selector, no depot visit needed |
| Price match | Price match promise on like-for-like quotes | Published price groups, no negotiation needed |
Figures reflect published account and delivery information at the time of writing. Confirm current pricing, terms, and lead times directly with each supplier before quoting a client. See also our full trade account comparison guide for suppliers beyond these two.
Where a Branch Model Like Howdens Still Makes Sense
It would be dishonest to pretend the depot model has no advantages. If you need a couple of extra units the same morning to finish a job, walking into a local depot and collecting from stock beats waiting on any delivery, however fast — nothing online can compete with same-morning collection for an urgent top-up. An established relationship with a depot manager can also smooth over problems quickly; if something's wrong with an order, a face-to-face conversation with someone who knows your account can resolve it faster than a support ticket. Some fitters also simply prefer face-to-face account management, particularly when negotiating pricing on larger or repeat jobs, where a depot manager has room to flex in a way a fixed national price list doesn't.
For urgent, small, top-up orders on an active site — a missing filler panel, an extra drawer box, a replacement door that arrived damaged — a nearby branch is genuinely hard to beat, and it's worth being realistic about that rather than pretending online ordering solves every scenario a fitter runs into.
What's Driving More Fitters to Order Online
The pattern among trade buyers is fairly consistent: price transparency and consistency across jobs in different regions matters more as a fitting business grows beyond one local patch. A fitter working across several towns benefits from quoting off one national price list rather than re-checking depot-specific figures for every job — it removes a step from the quoting process and reduces the risk of underquoting a job because a price assumption from one depot didn't hold at another. Being able to see a full price before opening an account also removes a step that used to require a phone call or a branch visit, which matters for fitters comparing suppliers before committing to either.
There's also a generational and operational shift worth naming: fitters increasingly manage their business from a phone between jobs, not from an office or a depot counter. A supplier that fits that workflow — order, track, and manage payment entirely online — matches how the work actually gets done day to day for a growing share of the trade.
Contractors running multiple sites report a related benefit: because every site works from the same national price groups, a site manager or subcontractor can be given a spec and a price group number and told to order directly, without needing to check back on what a particular depot would charge. That's a small thing on a single job, but it removes a recurring coordination step on a multi-site operation.
How Job Type Should Guide Your Decision
Rather than picking one supplier permanently, many fitters end up using both, matched to the job. A single local job with a tight deadline and the need for last-minute top-ups suits a depot relationship. A job in a less familiar area, a multi-kitchen project, or a client who wants to see a firm price before you even quote suits an online order with published pricing and a guaranteed national delivery window. Thinking about it this way — matching the supplier to the job, not committing to one model for everything — tends to serve a growing fitting business better than treating it as an either/or decision.
A simple way to decide on any given job: if the deadline is under two weeks and you're local to a depot, a branch order is likely the safer bet. If you have more than two weeks' lead time, are working outside your usual area, or want a fixed price to show a client before committing, an online order removes more variables than it introduces.
How to Open a Trade Kitchens Account and Compare for Yourself
Opening an account takes a few minutes online, with no depot visit required. Once registered, you can configure a kitchen through the selector — choosing style, colour, price group, and assembly type — and see the price before committing to anything. It's a straightforward way to run your own comparison against a current Howdens quote for the same spec, and because the pricing is published, you don't need to wait on a callback or a depot visit to get a number to compare.
Before you commit either way, it's worth pricing the exact same specification — same door style, same carcass colour, same unit count — through both suppliers. Because Howdens pricing is depot-specific, a quote from one branch won't necessarily match another, so treat any single depot comparison as a snapshot rather than a definitive national figure.
FAQ
Is Trade Kitchens cheaper than Howdens?
It depends on the spec and which Howdens depot you're comparing against, since Howdens pricing varies by branch. Trade Kitchens' price groups are published online, so the most reliable way to compare is to price the same specification through both — the kitchen selector and your current depot quote — before placing an order.
Do I need a registered business to open a trade account?
Trade accounts are aimed at fitters, builders, and businesses buying at trade volume. Registration is completed online and confirms your details before you place an order.
Can I get next-day collection like a Howdens depot?
No — Trade Kitchens doesn't operate physical depots, so there's no same-day collection option. Kitchens are made to order and delivered within two weeks, UK-wide. For urgent same-day top-up items, a local branch model remains the faster route.
Do you offer credit accounts?
Trade accounts are managed online through the trade team. Speak to the team directly about account and payment options for your business.
Can I use both Trade Kitchens and Howdens for different jobs?
Yes — many fitters keep more than one supplier account open and choose between them based on the job. There's nothing stopping you using a depot for urgent local top-ups and an online order for a planned job with a firm delivery date.
Does an online order come with the same colour and style choice as a depot?
Trade Kitchens gives access to multiple brands — German, Italian, Turkish and UK-manufactured — through one account, which in practice offers a wider style and colour pool than a single in-house range. Browse the full range through the kitchen selector before you commit to a spec.
What happens if part of an online order is faulty or arrives damaged?
Report it to the trade team with photos and your order reference as soon as you spot the issue on site — most made-to-order suppliers handle replacement panels or units as a priority reorder rather than a full remake, but always confirm the process and expected turnaround when you open your account, since it affects how you sequence a job.
Can I order a mix of rigid and flat-pack units in the same kitchen?
Yes — Trade Kitchens allows rigid (pre-assembled) and flat-pack units, including cam/dowel or screw-assembled options, within the same order, so you can choose based on van space, install time, and the specifics of the job rather than being locked into one format for the whole kitchen.
Sources and Further Verification
Account terms, pricing structures, and delivery commitments referenced in this article reflect publicly published information from Howdens' trade account and investor pages and Trade Kitchens' online kitchen selector, checked as of August 2026. Terms, depot counts, and figures change over time, so before quoting a client, confirm current numbers directly with the sources below:
- Howden Joinery Group Plc — Spring Trading Update 2026 (28 April 2026), confirming 891 UK depots and full-year 2025 group revenue of £2.4bn: howdenjoinerygroupplc.com
- Howdens — "About Us," confirming growth from 14 depots at founding in 1995 to nearly 900 today and more than 470,000 trade professionals served, with Mintel's September 2025 UK kitchens category report cited for the Number 1 Trade Kitchen Supplier claim: howdens.com/help-and-advice/about-us
- Howdens — trade account terms and Anytime Ordering details: howdens.com
- Trade Kitchens (trading name of Custom Kitchens Limited, Harrow, London) — price groups, brand range, guarantee, and delivery terms, published at trade-kitchens.co.uk, including the Trade Kitchens FAQ page
- Federation of Master Builders — general guidance on trade account and supplier due diligence: fmb.org.uk
Related Reading
| Topic | Guide |
|---|---|
| Curious what you'd actually save switching from a showroom or branch model | The Real Cost of a Trade Kitchen: Online vs. Showroom |
| Want to know how 2-week delivery affects your job diary | How a 2-Week Delivery Turns Into More Fitting Jobs Won |
| Comparing every major online trade account, not just Howdens | Trade Account Perks Compared: Trade Kitchens vs. Other Online Suppliers |
| Understanding price groups before you configure your first order | How Trade Kitchens' Nine Price Groups Work |
| Choosing between rigid and flat-pack for your next job | Rigid vs. Flat-Pack Units: What Actually Changes On Site |
Both models exist because they solve different problems: a depot suits urgent, small, local top-ups, while online ordering suits fitters who want one consistent price and a firm delivery date, wherever the job is. If your work spans more than one area, or you're tired of re-checking prices depot to depot, it's worth pricing your next kitchen through the Trade Kitchens selector and comparing it directly against your current Howdens quote before you decide.
This article is independent editorial content intended to help fitters compare suppliers. Pricing, delivery windows, and account terms are correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and are subject to change — always confirm directly with the supplier before quoting a client.