designerati kitchen guide Perfect Partners

Ornate Kitchens & Interiors is an inspirational story about how business partners Samuel Payne, Osman Hasan and Zygimantas Daugela turned their dream of starting a new kitchen design business into reality with the help and support of MHK.

Samuel Payne, one of three Directors of Kent-based Ornate Kitchens & Interiors, explains how launching their new business was not nearly as daunting with the support and expert advice of MHK, Europe’s leading buying group for independent kitchen, bathroom and bedroom retailers. The group’s assistance with key functions from cashflow to purchasing power, sales leads to digital marketing, as well as access to a huge range of suppliers, was a huge driver in transforming their dream into reality.

Please tell us a little about Ornate Kitchens & Interiors; the story so far, and the projects that you undertake. The dream to start our own business began when Osman Hasan, Zygimantas Daugela and myself discussed our experiences and issues in the KBB industry and knew we could create a kitchen design studio that could excel in all areas, particularly in beautiful design and consistent quality control, by pairing excellent service with beautiful products. Combining my background in interior design and architecture with Osman and Zygimantas’ broad experience in building, installation, carpentry, and project management we felt would be a perfect recipe for creating an outstanding customer experience. All we needed was detailed and expert KBB industry business knowledge and contacts.

So, we joined MHK in 2022 and, following in depth and productive discussions with them, developed an ambitious and carefully curated strategic plan and finally launched our showroom in 2022. We chose Tunbridge Wells as our first design studio location – a town I am familiar with, and where I’ve previously undertaken some beautiful projects in the past and knew it would offer interesting opportunities in terms of scope of work.

You opened for business just last year –what were some of the main challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

There is never a right time to open a business and despite the challenges that Covid presented during our planning stages we knew from our own experiences that it was an indisputably good time for the building industry as an increased focus on home improvements led to remarkable sales figures and good profit margins. For this reason, we felt that opening in 2022 gave us an advantage in some ways.

In the context of an uncertain post-Covid world, we also found ourselves reluctant to commit to a large showroom with expensive overheads and instead opted for a small, impactful showroom that can work very hard for us as a space to meet clients and give them a taste of what we can offer. Paired with beautiful CAD designs and the vast amount of product available to us through MHK we’ve found that a smaller showroom is serving us well and we can still deliver customers their dream kitchen.

How has working with MHK helped your business and what are some of the specific benefits, particularly for a new business?

I was very aware after working in showrooms for years that buying in appliances is what