Howdens Joinery has agreed to acquire DIY Kitchens for an enterprise value of £390 million, giving the trade-only supplier a direct line into a customer base it has never served before.
The deal is structured as £292.5m in cash, funded from existing resources, plus a new £240m bank facility, and £97.5m in shares, with Howdens issuing 12.7 million new ordinary shares at 766 pence each.
Howdens is paying 8.5 times the last 12 months’ EBITDA.
The company expects the acquisition to lift revenue, EBIT margin and earnings per share immediately, with returns comfortably above its cost of capital.
The acquisition is a major shift in Howdens’ model. Up until now, Howdens has sold exclusively to the building trade through nearly 900 depots; DIY Kitchens has sold exclusively online to non-trade consumers who want to plan, design and order a kitchen themselves.
Buying it opens up a whole segment of the UK market that Howdens has previously not had direct access to.
DIY Kitchens turned over £136m in 2025 at a 27% EBIT margin, and has grown revenue by more than 17% a year over the past five years.
DIY Kitchens supports its online offer with two large destination showrooms and a third under construction in Scotland, a format Howdens sees expanding nationwide over time. The deal also brings around £55m of freehold property, and management expects cost savings further out in shared raw materials, sourcing and machinery, though the priority initially is to let the business keep doing what it does well.
Andrew Livingston, CEO of Howdens, said: “Howdens’ highly successful trade-only model is built around supporting solely trade customers with outstanding in-stock availability, expert local depot teams, and an end-to-end service from design through to delivery. The acquisition of DIY Kitchens, which will be operated on a standalone basis, adds a complementary very profitable, business to the Group, providing access to non-trade end customers through its direct online channel with self-service planning, design and ordering tools.”