PWS Kitchens

Our Story

PWS kitchens is a market-leading distributor of kitchen and bedroom components – proudly supplying the UK KBB industry for over 110 years.

We bring together the most comprehensive range of quality stocked products from the world’s leading manufacturers, together with the most flexible services and bespoke design options - all supplied from under ONE roof. We’re committed to continuous innovation and a highly integrated, customer-centric approach, where delivering excellent service and understanding our customers’ requirements is at the heart of everything we do. Most importantly, every customer is supported by ONE personal team – dedicated to providing expert advice, and assisting a professional, streamlined journey from start to finish.

Our First Family Shop

Our story began in 1909, supplying hardware and tools, as an independent, family-run business in Darlington, County Durham, named Percy W. Stephenson and Son – the roots of PWS as we know it today.

From day one, our approach was to offer an innovative, flexible, and quality collection of products at an affordable price, values that remain strong today.

1969

Bigger And Branching Out

As demand grew, we moved into new premises across two sites. We branched into ceramics, architectural ironmongery and joinery services – which eventually led to us supplying kitchen componentry and furniture to the trade.

1981

Our First Distribution Centre

Built upon our skilled craftsmanship and technical expertise, supplying trade professionals with kitchen componentry and furniture became our main enterprise, which led to us opening a new arm of the business, PWS Distributors Ltd. With this move came the need for a lot more space. Thanks to our first distribution centre with an adjoining office building, we were able to stock products on a whole new scale and service customer orders quickly and easily, on a national level; shortly followed by our second distribution centre in the South East 1984.

1987

500,000 SQ.FT. Distribution Hub

Demand grew and grew, and we eventually settled in a dedicated distribution hub - on the same 500,000 sq. ft site where we stand today. With specialist technology and unprecedented capacity, PWS has grown from strength to strength. Today, we supply over 10,500 innovative and quality kitchen and bedroom components to the UK KBB market - as one of the industry’s leading trade distributors.

1990

National Consumer Brand

With ever-growing demand from consumers looking to buy kitchens that incorporated our kitchen doors and accessories, we launched ‘Second Nature Kitchens’ - an aspirational, independent, and nationwide consumer brand. Still, a renowned, industry-leading brand to this day, Second Nature brings together an accessible, trend leading collection of kitchens for consumers, demonstrating the unique and personalised designs that can be created using PWS products. But most importantly, Second Nature is exclusively sold through a network of expert, independent retailers across the UK – all dedicated to upholding our core family values.

2001

Leading UK Design Centre

As the leading name in both product and design, PWS products were being used to create kitchens in the homes of 1000s of consumers up and down the UK – all sold through a diverse base of KBB experts. With trade customers looking to PWS for inspiration, we opened our first 30,000 sq. ft. ‘Design Centre’ at our County Durham headquarters. To this day, as the UK’s largest KBB trade showroom, the PWS Design Centre guides creating the latest kitchen and bedroom looks – as well as offering an impressive sales space for the trade to bring their consumers.

2008

Award-Winning Worksurface Manufacturing

With an increasing number of customers seeking their whole kitchen solution from one trusted source, we soon expanded into the fabrication of high quality, bespoke worksurfaces with the launch of our award-winning manufacturing facility at our HQ site. Combining state-of-the-art technology and expert craftsmanship, PWS Worksurfaces provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated collection of worksurface products, with a commitment to worldwide sourcing of the very best materials.

2009

One hundred years on, we had certainly come a long way from our first family shop in Darlington. We are always committed to listening to our customers, responding to market demands, and building for the future. We’re proud to continually diversify and expand our offering whilst honing our expertise as a leader in our field.

2013

Exclusive Classic Collection

Following huge customer demand, we identified the opportunity to provide an exclusive collection of classic, painted, timer products for the more discerning consumer looking for a quintessentially English ‘in-frame kitchen look. Paying homage to our heritage and the year PWS started, our second consumer-facing brand ‘1909 Kitchens’ was born. Also sold exclusively through specialist independent retailers, 1909 combines classic elegance with intricate detailing for an understated and sophisticated look designed to suit any home.

2016

New Southern Showroom

Building on our Northern Design Centre's success and following huge customer demand, we launched our second Southern Design Centre in Slough, Berkshire. Conveniently located a short distance outside of London’s city centre, it has allowed us to expand our design inspiration and sales support to even more trade customers throughout the UK.

2018

Industry-Leading Paint Finishing

With a drive to improve quality and service for all customers, we have heavily invested in a fully automated paint finishing facility, also located at our HQ site. Our print-to-order service offers an extensive colour palette and a superior quality, finish and consistency for all painted products across our comprehensive product portfolio. Our leading facility employs the latest technology and manufacturing techniques to ensure the highest performance levels at all times, with the greatest capacity and quickest throughput in the industry.

2019

Introducing PWS Bedrooms

Listening to our customers’ feedback is paramount to the success of our business. With many of our kitchen customers already utilising our products in other areas of the home, particularly for bedroom projects, we developed a natural progression to develop a dedicated bedroom collection as part of our core proposition. It is available to all PWS customers, component, made-to-measure and sliding formats, with a wide selection of storage, handles, and accessories to match. PWS Bedrooms is now one of the most flexible and comprehensive bedroom collections in the industry.

Today

Today, PWS is one of a kind independent business - with the same family at the helm, just a little bit bigger.

Occupying over 500,000 sqft at our headquarters in County Durham, we’ve stayed true to our roots and remain a stone’s throw away from the original family shop.

Our success is paramount to the support of our trade customers. We’re proud to have helped create thousands of homes through them, forging lasting partnerships with a growing family of valued partners nationwide.

Five generations of modern values, built for the future.