Kingfisher, the home improvement company, launched GoodHome yesterday, a new international brand and have said GoodHome will provide a simpler way of helping home improvers, their helpers and professionals, with projects, big or small. This move marks the latest step in Kingfisher’s transformation. Over the past three years, the business has unified its supply chain, developed new products and services, and invested in an improved digital and omnichannel experience. With GoodHome, this innovation now becomes visible to customers for the first time, with its pilot store opening in Wallington earlier this month.

The new brand aims to shake up the home improvement market by offering unique products and solutions that are design-led, high quality and affordably priced. All GoodHome ranges are designed to make things simpler for customers, with a focus on the 11 most common home improvement projects.

The business is also trialling new GoodHome store concepts, including an express format. This convenience store will provide a new way to shop for the most frequent home improvement projects, as well as an effortless digital shopping experience, and inspiration and advice from a team of skilled colleagues. The Wallington store is the first express store of its kind, and Kingfisher has said more express store trials to open in the UK and France later this year.

Speaking at yesterday's Innovation Day for press, where Kingfisher unveiled GoodHome and the new concept which includes, but is not limited to, a new digital format, personalised project help, express trade counters and new display centres, Véronique Laury, CEO of Kingfisher, said of GoodHome: "We started three years ago, and we have undertaken in-depth research to get knowledge on home improvement and customer needs. By doing this, we found that people are improving their homes with the same purpose – they want a home that is good to live in. However, this study also revealed that most improvement projects are abandoned either before they begin or before they are finished. It may be lack of inspiration, too much complexity, not enough skill, time or money. Whatever the problem is, there are often too many barriers to create a good home.

"Our customers tell us ‘home improvement can be a nightmare’ and the heart of our purpose, everything that we have been doing for the last few years, and we continue to do, is about fixing the nightmare. The biggest change [in the home improvement market] has been the arrival of new players like Amazon and ManoMano. But so far, no market player is offering an end-to-end seamless home improvement experience. No one has solved the nightmare. And this is our potential.

“GoodHome is our new international home improvement customer proposition, based on deep customer understanding. It stands for all our changes - it stands for simple, sustainable, unique and innovative solutions that last and which are affordable. GoodHome is the name we put on everything we are doing to make home improvement accessible to the many, not the few: our new product offer, new services, new store concepts, our training centre and our new charitable foundation.”

The GoodHome brand will tackle these common customer problems by delivering the following:

• New solutions. In-house designers will use deep customer insight to create innovative new products and services that help to make the home improvement journey simpler and easier.
• Great value. Through economies of scale and smart design, the business will provide high quality products at everyday low prices, helping to make the best solutions accessible to everyone.
• Know-how. There will be trained experts in store to support home improvers and break down the know-how barrier. The business has created a GoodHome Academy to train colleagues.
• Simplicity. The aim of GoodHome is to always simplify things for customers. From creating digital tools to help with planning a project, to products that are easy to use and install. Examples include a tap you can install with a simple click, to flexible bathroom furniture to fit in any corner.
• Sustainability. GoodHome is green inside and out so our products have sustainability designed in from the start, such as low waste taps and air-purifying paint. It is also our commitment to support our community, so we will also use our time, skills and resources to make home improvement accessible for those who need it most.

From May 2019, GoodHome products and services will be available online and in B&Q, Castorama and Brico Dépôt stores throughout the UK, France, Poland and Romania.

Read a full report on the Innovation Day, with exclusive comment and video content in the upcoming 24 May issue of DIY Week.