Why Kingfisher’s NeedHelp acquisition is ‘missing piece of the puzzle’

Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix in the UK as well as Brico Dépôt and Castorama in mainland Europe, has purchased an 80% stake in the marketplace with plans to roll it out in the UK next year.

Founded in 2014 by Guillaume de Kergariou, who will continue to act as chief executive for the business, NeedHelp is an online platform that connects customers with verified tradespeople to carry out their home improvement projects. 

With the do-it-yourself market booming amid the coronavirus pandemic, Kingfisher’s acquisition is an intriguing one as it looks ahead to when customers may return to wanting someone to do it for them. 

Forward-looking

Despite the current lockdown trends, Kingfisher chief customer and digital officer JJ Van Oosten, who has now been appointed chair of NeedHelp, recognises that in a normal world most people do not have the skills or time to undertake every home improvement job themselves.

“In general, when you listen to our customers, it’s true that in the first two waves of lockdown we have had quite a lot of new customers and younger ones who came to us with an interest in DIY,” he says.

“However, there is a trend for the last 12 to 15 years in all our markets of customers asking for support – most jobs aren’t something you’d do yourself.

“For us, being very customer-driven, we know that they are asking us for [services] and we don’t have an offer for them – between a quarter and a third of customers in the store are asking for someone to help with painting, carpeting, etc.”

Kantar business unit director Simon Quirk agrees that the trend for shoppers to do their own home improvements during lockdown will be reversed once a vaccine is found.

“With the Kingfisher footprint in the UK at the moment, with a mix of domestic and trade customers, it’s a no-brainer”

Simon Quirk, Kantar

“It’s a really canny acquisition,” he says. “The reason this acquisition is so interesting for Kingfisher is that they’re really thinking about the midterm.

“The expectation is that this is a one-off occurrence and as soon as we as a population get some more free time I think everyone is going to be off thinking about how they spend as little time in their homes as possible. 

“To that extent, I think using tradespeople, linking up and using the expertise from an easy-to-find trusted digital source feels like a really sensible play. 

“I think with the Kingfisher footprint in the UK at the moment, with a mix of domestic and trade customers, it’s a no-brainer.”

Room to grow

Although the details of how NeedHelp’s service will be offered in the UK are still being ironed out, Van Oosten points to how it is advertised in France as an example.

In its home country, NeedHelp is offered both on its own website and on its retail partners’ sites, including Kingfisher-owned Castorama and Brico Dépôt, as well as Ikea France and furnishing chain Conforama.

The marketplace would also be advertised using point-of-sale materials and, most importantly, integrated into store colleagues’ digital devices.

“I can see that in the near future you could have customers saying ‘I want the price for that tap, but for that tap installed’ so the price for both the product and service should be wrapped into one,” says Van Oosten.

“When you go on holiday, you buy your excursions and everything integrated into your basket online – in our business it’s something that’s not yet possible, but it’s something that we are looking forward to doing.”

Importantly and intriguingly, Kingfisher is bringing NeedHelp to the UK with no exclusivity clause.

“We will continue to grow the business that it has with Ikea and Conforama – if it grows in the UK and it goes to Homebase, that’s okay with us”

JJ Van Oosten, Kingfisher

The platform already has retail partners such as Ikea and Kingfisher will allow de Kergariou and his team “oxygen” to grow however they see fit.

“It will remain a complete open architecture – we’ve really insisted on this,” Van Oosten explains.

“Gone are the days where you have to have everything under exclusivity. 

“We will continue to grow the business that it has with Ikea and Conforama – if it grows in the UK and it goes to Homebase, that’s okay with us. 

“We will have Chinese walls across the various databases and commercial plans. It’s very important to us that it remains completely open.”

While this idea could work to organically grow its customer base to other sectors such as garden centres and furniture retailers, Quirk points out that, as NeedHelp is a Kingfisher-owned marketplace and database, competitors could be more likely to simply create their own version instead.

Unifying Kingfisher’s strengths

Van Oosten dubs NeedHelp the “Airbnb of tradesmen” – a true marketplace where all needs can be catered for and customers can be sure that the job they pay for will be done at a high standard.

NeedHelp will use Kingfisher-owned Screwfix and TradePoint’s databases of tradespeople to connect with its retail customers in B&Q stores to address their home improvement needs.

While Kingfisher is taking a back seat in controlling the day-to-day running of its various retail banners under the new ‘Powered by Kingfisher’ strategy, Van Oosten says that the acquisition of NeedHelp is one element it makes sense for the group to work together on.

“It unifies the various strengths of the different brands within the portfolio to holistically retain some of this spend we’ve seen this year on making our homes look better,” explains Quirk. 

“I think the idea of unifying up the components of the business and creating a virtuous circle that continues to generate sales and continues to inspire us to rejuvenate our homes feels like a missing piece of the puzzle.”

With customers constantly asking for the service in store and the database already at its disposal, it only begs the question: why hasn’t Kingfisher done this sooner?