warehouse worker

kitchen designer

business developer

customer service representative

territory representative

Howdens Joinery Co

In commercial terms Howdens are a modern success story. Built off the support of now defunct MFI they opened their first stores in and around London about 16 years ago. The mission was clear - to sell kitchens and related products to tradesmen for onward sale to their customers, ie the general public.
Their business model was, at that time, new and unique as their aim was to be able to provide all their stock listing in every depot. Hence they occupied warehouses with small showrooms. They also aimed to build close and friendly relationships with their customers; joiners, small builders, electricians, etc etc etc.
Each branch or depot had a manager, assistant manager, sales representative, kitchen designer (CAD person) and warehouseman. As the company grew - which it did rapidly - the number of staff would proportionately rise.
The early years of the company coincided with a spending boom in Britain. Expansion was rapid and continuous with the chief executive's avowed intention of eventually establishing a branch in just about every town in the United Kingdom. The overall feeling within the branches was one of optimism and pride in the company. Salaries were good (though not exceptional, especially for the less senior members of staff) and a bonus structure was established which meant all staff members in depots took an equal share in the bonus pot for that depot.
And then the recession arrived and everything changed. Overnight, it seemed, a new and unpleasant management culture invaded the company. Perhaps it was caused by the imperative directives that started coming on a daily and with a more strident tone from the very top, directives that gave little or no thought to individuals or the rank and file and every emphasis on maintaining growth and, of course, turnover and profit.
Depot managers who had been cheerful individuals, supportive and friendly with their staff, became demanding martinets impatient with staff and utterly unable to tolerate delays to completing sales or confirming orders.
The only things that mattered, it seemed, were achieving sales targets that became increasingly divorced from reality, maintaining a large profit margin and continuing to open new credit accounts for customers. A customer with a credit account, we were repeatedly told, spent much more than a customer who dealt on a strictly cash basis.
Though it is a strong term, the only word I can use to describe this new management ethos was one of bullying.
And it was not just at depot level. In my eight years with the company I saw very senior company managers berating regional and area managers, regional managers verbally assaulting area managers and area managers castigating depot managers. And much of this was done without thought as to who might be present and listening.
Indeed, in my early days with the company I was witness to several unpleasant phone calls from a regional manager to a depot manager. The regional manager was apparently drunk (this was around 5.00pm on a normal working day) and used what a football referee might call foul and abusive language on an almost hysterical scale.
As I said earlier I worked for the company for eight years starting in a warehouse and working my way up to become a depot manager. I enjoyed the early years. We had a very good, very able and supportive depot manager. I tolerated the rest of my time with the company though with increasing stress levels.
There were frequent suggestions that everyone was 'replaceable'. At management meetings anyone who questioned a new directive was told if they didn't like it they should close the door on their way out. These meetings, probably intended to build a positive company spirit, inevitably produced adverse reactions. In my last few years with Howdens I knew very few people, sound people with good work ethics and excellent product and systems knowledge, who didn't openly dislike their working environment.
Incidentally, though the business model was, in the 90's, innovative and new, now there are a multitude of other companies, small and large, who provide an equal if not better product and service at more reasonable prices.
It may be, of course, that to survive the recession the company had to take a tougher line; to become leaner and more streamlined. Perhaps some of the decisions taken that appeared harsh at the time were necessary for the survival of the company and helped secure the jobs of all the Howdens employees. That's fine, that's business. What I can never accept as necessary is the hardline, bullying, culture that pervaded the company for the last few years I was there.
Had I known what I do now when I started working for Howdens I would not have taken the job. They paid me well for the time I was there, but the overall price I paid in terms of stress, constant worry and nights without sleep was not commensurate.

Most depots are ran by uneducated, unprofessional managers of whom many are in that position because they are friends with equally uneducated and unprofessional area managers. 
Nepotism is rife at Howdens Joinery. When it comes to career progression it literally is a case of "Its not what you know, its who you know". 
Depot managers are actively allowed to recruit their children/siblings/cousins/best friends to work in the same depot as themselves and fast track and promote them up the ranks ahead of other more hardworking, loyal, deserving and long serving employees as well as protect them in return for them having their backs when called upon. 
This happens all over the country, even though they have a Staff Handbook. 
Has a depot manager ever rang HR to report a blood relative for poor performance or inappropriate behaviour?? I would bet my last dollar the answer is 'NO'. Everything gets covered up if its in their interests to do so. This scenario alone makes an absolute mockery of the staff handbook. 
They even have the audacity to invite you to fill out a "confidential" employee survey once a  year, but to access the survey which must be completed online, you are sent a unique password/pin number. 
you may as well upload a photo of yourself whilst filling it in because anything negative you say, they will know exactly who said what.  
This is just a snippet of how corrupt this company is. 

Depot managers are literally untouchable providing they are not on the rob or failing to grow sales and profit. They are protected to the hilt by both their Area Managers, HR and security, meaning if your boss doesn't like you, he can build up a false character reference of yourself to his/her Area Managers and HR by deliberately tell lies and make up stories about you to ruin your career and with their blessing and support, they will simply take his/her word as gospel and you will be gone.
One word that you are the bad for business is all it takes, when more often than not, it's the depot manager who is bad for the business. 

I have worked for a depot manager that once said to me 'HR are there for me, not you' and I have also worked for a different depot manager (both totally corrupt) that once said to me, "once you get your own depot, you are bullet proof, everyone above has got your back". 
Despite not believing or wanting to believe either of these comments at the time I was told them, I can wholeheartedly and sadly confirm that both are absolutely 100% true. 
 Worked under 3 depot managers in my time. Every single one of them was bent and corrupt to the core in their own ways and not one of them was intelligent or professional, just good pals with their superiors at the time of their appointment.

Overall a relatively decent company to work for unless you are a mother in a senior position who wishes to work part time. There are simply no opportunities for a mother to continue with her career if she wishes to do so part-time within Marketing or Training Departments. No loyalty to it's long serving staff. I was with them for 8 years and they would not honor a 3-day working week for just a few years whilst my only daughter was young.

A lot of young inexperienced management appointed with little structure,.

A typical day may be delivering a training course, working on training project, updating training materials, training admin, scheduling training visits, liasing with management and staff about training requirements.

I gained my CIPD CTP qualification with Howdens in 2008 and personal development was core to the training department for all its personnel....albeit very limited time to start, attend or complete any personal development courses ourselves.

Most enjoyable part of my job was training. I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of training delivery including the challenging groups.

Hardest part of the job .... the occasional incredibly demanding period with many projects and deadlines to be met whilst. having to maintain the momentum and delivery of training courses. But whilst this was difficult it was enjoyable and challenging.

Management of the Training Department is young and inexperienced. Whilst EXCELLENT in experience, knowledge and departmental background, MUCH is to be learned about harnessing staff opinions and drive, people management, equal opportunities and realising staff potential as opposed to personal views and opinions on a character. Very company driven and company-goal focused. Limited 'outside thinking' for being very 'Howdenised' after many years with the organisation. Requires fresh insight into Training. Professional, driven, committed hardworking and committed to self change.

Co-workers. An excellent set of colleagues, maximum professional integrity, affable, approachable, helpful and easy to work with.

Department lacks spontaneity and spark and is creatively restricted by protocols and procedures. However it is a professional working department and focused upon upholding company integrity and image.

I worked for this company for 18 months and I can with no regret clearly advise against working for them.

A typical day would include dealing with walk in clients, attending onsite meetings, designing kitchens, watching the manager berate a members of staff in public, seeing fellow co workers consistently bullied, watching managers abuse their power to create and instill an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.

I would not recommend anyone to work for this company who take job satisfaction, appreciation and career development seriously. I found it a ruthless company that cared little for customer care, service, integrity and staff development. Howdens is a money making at all expense company. It is an old fashioned boys network culture driven company with managers who are more interested in keeping their own jobs by whatever means necessary. Means that do include deceipt, harrasment, lack of equality the list is endless.

Howdens have and sell descent products but the bottom line is they have an old fashioned, proud, arrogant system in place which renders them out of touch. A company is only as good as it's staff that represent it and to work for a company that do not instill confidence in its workers is a disgusting experience. For myself I wondered if it was just my manager who had this behaviour but after gathering evidence related to unjust and fabricated charges of misconduct I then saw Area managers close ranks and seek to cover up the malpractices of their juniors.

There are more positive ways to grow and compile a satisfying career. Benchmark is its competitor and I suspect within 10 years will overtake Howdens market share. Although they both retail the same product, Benchmark do it with a fresh outlook on business and hunger to succeed through customer care and staff retention. Howdens couldn't care less.

I learn't alot at Howdens and there was much about the role of kitchen designer I enjoyed such as the satisfaction of seeing them receive their designed kitchens happily but the best experience I had at Howdens was handing in my notice as one of their best Sales Designer. It was like being under water too long and resurfacing for breath

It's different for every depot however this is my experience. So much pressure is put on you to achieve unreasonably high targets, causing a tense and stressful work environment. You constantly have to deal with difficult trade customers who insist on haggling to get a kitchen for next to nothing. It's absolutely soul destroying and exhausting. The IT systems to design and quote kitchens are outdated, tedious, frustrating and time consuming - you have to use codes for everything so you are constantly looking through the catalogue or code sheets just to find a singular item. They say they are trade only, yet as a designer I was primarily dealing with members of the public, yet the opening hours are 8-5pm and only the mornings on Saturdays, so it's hard to actually contact those customers and book them in for appointments. And unless they had a tradesperson who had an account with us, the time spent to measure, design and present the kitchen was often fruitless because we couldn't give them an actual quote, so they'd just take my designs and buy it elsewhere. I think Howden's should make up their mind - they should either be open to retail or be ACTUALLY trade only and only take measures booked via an account holder. The hours were exhausting as well, 8-5pm weekdays then 8-12pm on Saturdays, which was every Saturday for me. The whole time I worked there I never got a holiday day off, every day I requested was rejected. They have a very long sale period where you cannot get any days off, and though my request for one day (my birthday) was denied, other designers at other depots with the same area manager got to have weeks long holidays during the same period, which is just completely unfair. During this sale period they also force you to work overtime unpaid for however long it takes you to make your target for that day, it's, in my opinion, a sick and cruel practice. You will have to visit a lot of houses to measure the kitchens, the majority of your visits will be fine but I have had to deal with males harassing me in-house and in-depot, there is no support offered for this even though I did report it and people witnessed it, it was honestly a frequent occurrence that gave me anxiety and made me feel uncomfortable at work. I don't believe the job is safe for a woman. This all led me to leave, tired and defeated. The only good thing about me working here was my depot colleagues.

I started as a sales rep after running my own business for a number of years and so was not fully aware of the full culture within the depot until I progressed from sales rep outside the depot to BD and then kitchen designer.  
I did learn a lot about kitchens and joinery while at Howdens and think the systems and technical process they have in place are excellent and aided anyone in a sales or customer focused role.  The ordering/delivery process is simple and helps win custom.  Information on products is easily available so this also helps give customers the best support.
I liked the Manager and found her witty and engaging and admired her progression at such a young age and while raising a family and wanted to support and help but I learned in time she was poorly equipped or trained in Management skills.  It was a shame that I absolutely loved the role of designer but found the lack of support very stressful.  Occasionally, I would get an offer of help but it was not followed through and instead I found I was supporting others and often Bailing them out to the detriment of my own role and then also trying to catch up on my own work. 
There were some very big characters who caused friction that was left unchecked with a number of other employees. When I resigned I did offer to work 2 months notice as opposed to 1 as the company I was going to were prepared to wait but in Howdens this is not an option and you are asked to leave the same day to prevent you taking their customers or telling them where you are going.  This is sad and meant I have had not further contact with anyone apart from those who have also moved on from this depot.  I do not miss the constant arguing on top of a stressful position.  There are so many things that did not sit right with me and that were fundamentally wrong within this depot that I now realise how desperately unhappy I was for a long time and glad I finally got the confidence to not accept it and move on.  The culture within this depot and many others should not be allowed to continue.

Decent company to work for but the old school system (too much paperwork/ lack of digital set up) takes a lot of time as a business developer to deal with. You get a decent basic pay plus bonuses and sometimes you also get offered incentives on monthly basis. Staff are automatically offered 100 shares every financial year (june) but can only cash them once they are 3 years old. 

Workplace culture in general is good however quality of management is not necessarily top notch and they can often be found to be laid back, Career progression virtually does'nt exist as most other branches/ depots will not take you onboard if you are looking to move up from a Business developer into a kitchen sales designer. Moist depots prefer experienced kitchen sales designer rather provide you training.

Product knowledge training also is virtually non existent, you only pick up  knowledge either from other staff members if they have time to spare sometimes or reading up from the internal portal and company website . There are training courses provided but they generally tell you in short how to conduct yourself and to implement certain tools/ questioning tactics in gathering information and closing a deal with a customer. Only recently academy365 software was launched to help staff complete these courses online. 

Often lack of support from management in times of staff shortage increases your workload when you have to often serve at sales counter which effects  your primary role as business developer in achieving your daily targets of positive contacts and leads. 

Foul language is often used by staff and by customers (builders, joiners, kitchen fitters & contractors) which can make the workplace unhealthy place to work sometimes.

15 years experience this is my take…

Howdens PRE 2018 was a fantastic what a place to work! Felt valued, family feel to the business, good values, quality products, great work ethics, everyone had each others back! You genuinely felt proud to be a part of it! 6 days a week coming in early, stopping late through the sale, busy periods or staff shortages not a problem because you felt valued not just a number! Branch life was great!

POST 2018 with everything being remodelled, Matthew Ingle retiring and shareholders appointed we look like Screwfix smell like screwfix might aswell be “howfix”. All the changes in the business and the branches done by all these people who have no clue about any of the needs, demands of any of the jobs within a branch just look at these scanners.  Nothing matters only the ££, Everyone with any experience of Howdens isn’t happy despite what the “surveys” say, quality of the stock is shocking compared to what it use to be, but week in week out it still gets sent out, 900 branches and more coming all fishing in the same pond fighting against one another, branches dealing with anyone to get the sale because of the ridiculous “Covid targets” are we really trade anymore?? Opening bank holidays?! How long until all day Saturdays and open over Christmas? It’s a joke so scared of loosing £5 to Wren on a bank holiday Monday rather than staff wellbeing & morale! It’s just greed. They are so out of touch with what actually goes on in a branch now and how hard it is on a day to day basis. Morale in my opinion is at probably an all time low.

No one’s valued anymore you’re just a number. Over 250 years experience at my branch and no one’s happy anymore coming to work for howdens is genuinely a chore! 

The ships taking on water it won’t be long before the good honest experienced staff leave and it sinks! Remember MFI….

I worked at Howdens in a leadership capacity, and while the role was both challenging and rewarding, my overall experience was tainted by a lack of timely support and decisive leadership at critical moments.

From day one, I threw myself into the role with full commitment—often working long hours, going above and beyond to push the depot forward, and striving to build a stronger, more efficient team. I took ownership of my responsibilities and was dedicated to improving the depot’s performance, even when resources were tight and staff support was limited.

Unfortunately, despite consistent positive feedback from colleagues and customers alike, my efforts were not met with the same urgency or recognition from senior management. Important decisions, particularly regarding staffing and leadership roles, were repeatedly delayed. These delays not only created operational strain but also significantly impacted morale and left me feeling undervalued.

The tipping point for me came when I was led to believe a decision on a Depot Manager position was imminent, only to be told—despite everything I’d already demonstrated—that more time was needed to assess my suitability. At a time when the depot was critically understaffed and I was carrying the weight of multiple roles, this indecision felt like a profound setback.

In the end, I made the difficult decision to step back—not because I wasn’t capable, but because continuing under such uncertain conditions became unsustainable. Leadership needs to empower and support its people, especially when they are doing everything possible to keep things afloat.

To sum it up: Howdens is a company with potential and some fantastic people on the ground, but without timely decision-making and stronger leadership support, it risks losing passionate and committed team members.


I worked at Howdens in a leadership capacity, and while the role was both challenging and rewarding, my overall experience was tainted by a lack of timely support and decisive leadership at critical moments.

From day one, I threw myself into the role with full commitment—often working long hours, going above and beyond to push the depot forward, and striving to build a stronger, more efficient team. I took ownership of my responsibilities and was dedicated to improving the depot’s performance, even when resources were tight and staff support was limited.

Unfortunately, despite consistent positive feedback from colleagues and customers alike, my efforts were not met with the same urgency or recognition from senior management. Important decisions, particularly regarding staffing and leadership roles, were repeatedly delayed. These delays not only created operational strain but also significantly impacted morale and left me feeling undervalued.

The tipping point for me came when I was led to believe a decision on a Depot Manager position was imminent, only to be told—despite everything I’d already demonstrated—that more time was needed to assess my suitability. At a time when the depot was critically understaffed and I was carrying the weight of multiple roles, this indecision felt like a profound setback.

In the end, I made the difficult decision to step back—not because I wasn’t capable, but because continuing under such uncertain conditions became unsustainable. Leadership needs to empower and support its people, especially when they are doing everything possible to keep things afloat.

To sum it up: Howdens is a company with potential and some fantastic people on the ground, but without timely decision-making and stronger leadership support, it risks losing passionate and committed team

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Warehouse worker 10 salaries reported	£16,852 per year
Kitchen designer 9 salaries reported	£25,459 per year
Business developer 4 salaries reported	£16,688 per year
Customer service representative 2 salaries reported	£15,000 per year
Territory representative 6 salaries reported	£21,113 per year

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