Our Story
How Kitchen Makeovers changed the way homeowners think about their kitchens and created an outstanding franchise opportunity in the process.
How We Started
Kitchen Makeovers was first opened in 2018 by Will Frankling and Matt Oakley. Like most successful businesses, it was founded on something very simple: filling a gap in the market by giving customers exactly what they need. Especially when it’s something they can’t find elsewhere.
Will and Matt spotted something that had been largely overlooked and ignored by the rest of the home renovation industry: the majority of homeowners who want a fresh kitchen don’t necessarily need an entirely new one. What they needed was a new look, delivered quickly, affordably, and without all the stress and disruption which come with a complete refurb.
Kitchen Makeovers has followed a very different journey than most home renovation businesses, who usually start by offering a product and expanding from there. Instead, it was founded on the concept of offering a new kind of customer experience – one which actually appealed to the modern homeowner – and then building the business, and the franchise, from there.
A business designed to work differently
Kitchen Makeovers began trading in Hertfordshire in September 2018, and from the very first day it operated on a model that was deliberately different from the rest of the industry. No sprawling showrooms, no large, expensive premises, and no swarms of sales staff. Just a lean, home-based operation with low overheads, strong margins, and a singular focus on delivering beautiful kitchen transformations efficiently and affordably.
Customers responded immediately. They loved the quality of the results, the speed of the process and the fact that it cost a fraction of what a full replacement would have set them back. Word spread, the diary filled, and the business grew.
Opening the doors to franchisees
By 2020, Will and Matt had two years of real trading data, a refined operational model, and proof that what they had built could be delivered to a consistently high standard. The decision to launch a franchise programme felt like a natural next step rather than a leap of faith. It was the definitive proof of concept Will and Matt had hoped for, and they embraced the logical next step: rolling out the Kitchen Makeovers business model as a franchise.
Very soon, the first franchisees came on board – people who wanted to build something genuinely rewarding within a framework that had already demonstrated it worked – and the network has grown steadily and consistently ever since, now operating across dozens of locations nationwide. Crucially, it has grown in the right way, with franchisees who are well-supported, genuinely satisfied, and building businesses they are proud of.
Our Awards
In 2024, 2025 & 2026, the franchise was ranked among the Elite Franchise Top 100, winning the Best Franchise Continuous Improvement Award and achieving a 5-Star Franchisee Satisfaction rating, making it the only kitchen makeover brand in the United Kingdom to have earned that distinction.
For the founders, how the business grows is every bit as important as the results it delivers. This is a brand built on empowering the right people, doing things properly, and sharing in something truly exceptional.
