After starting online and later opening in Mayfair, Neutra Kitchen has begun a new chapter with a move to Putney High Street. Housewares Magazine’s Will McGill speaks to Director Khan about building the business from scratch, choosing products carefully and why there is still plenty of life left in bricks-and-mortar retail.
Walk out of Putney station and you do not have to go far to find Neutra Kitchen. In fact, you can see it almost immediately.
Sitting prominently on Putney High Street, the independent kitchenware retailer’s new home is bright, colourful and packed with the sort of products that encourage you to stop for a closer look. Cookware sits alongside tableware, salt and pepper mills, chopping boards, teas and food products, while furniture and larger pieces broaden the offer beyond that of a traditional cookshop.
There is plenty still to come, too. At the time of the visit, at the start of July, Neutra Kitchen had only been trading from the Putney site for just over a month. There are displays still to be filled and areas Khan already has plans for, but the store certainly does not feel unfinished.
More importantly, the reaction from Putney has been encouraging.
“It’s been very positive,” Khan says. “Any kind of quality shop is welcome. There’s not a kitchen shop here.”
For Khan, Neutra Kitchen is becoming part of a wider mix that he believes can help give people another reason to visit the high street. He says customers have already remarked that the store means they do not necessarily have to travel elsewhere to find the products they are looking for.
“People come here saying to us, ‘I don’t have to go to Richmond now,’ so it’s a good addition to the area,” he says. “It’s been a welcome thing on the high street.”
It is a promising start to the latest chapter in a business that began not with a grand retail plan, but with a cooking class.
From cooking class to cookshop
Around seven or eight years ago, Khan attended a healthy cooking class and came away thinking differently about what he used in his own kitchen.
“The guy there was very good, very knowledgeable, and he told me that materials actually affect your food,” he recalls. “I have three kids and I was like, ‘I didn’t know this.’”
That prompted Khan to invest in some higher-quality cookware of his own. Initially, the price raised eyebrows at home, but once it was being used, he says the difference became clearer.
The experience planted the seed for what would eventually become Neutra Kitchen.
At the time, Khan had left a job he had held for 14 years and was considering what to do next. An acquaintance was selling quality cookware on a relatively small scale and Khan, who already had experience in retail, began thinking about how a similar proposition could be developed differently.
“I have a background in retail,” he explains. “I realised the potential and the idea started from there. I started researching products and suppliers and putting my vision together with my experience in retail.
“Then I thought, ‘You know what? I’m actually going to go for it.’”
That was around six years ago.
From the beginning, the idea was about more than simply filling shelves with kitchenware. Khan wanted the products Neutra Kitchen sold to have a reason for being there.
“I wanted to make sure that the stuff that I carried was actually going to impact people in a positive way,” he says.
“Good materials and making a difference to health, so to speak, is where the Neutra Kitchen name comes from. It’s all about having a healthy kitchen and everything that complements that.”
The kitchen’s position at the centre of family life also helped shape the concept.
“It’s the hub of the home,” Khan says. “We wanted to make sure that everything we did complemented that, enhanced it and encouraged it. That’s where the whole Neutra Kitchen concept started.”
Online to Mayfair
Like many businesses launched around the beginning of the decade, Neutra Kitchen’s early development was complicated by Covid.
The business initially traded online, but Khan had always recognised the potential value of combining e-commerce with a physical presence.
“When you’re new, online is harder,” he says. “Nowadays, you cannot have a business without an online presence, especially, but we thought we could do both side by side.”
As restrictions eased, an opportunity emerged in Mayfair. Empty shops and the unusual property market following the pandemic meant Neutra Kitchen was able to secure a deal on a central London location.
It offered the business visibility and an opportunity to establish its name, but trading from one of London’s most expensive districts was never going to be straightforward.
“It was actually quite hard, as you can imagine, especially just after Covid,” Khan says.
The business deliberately avoided committing itself to a long lease. When that agreement eventually came to an end and the cost of remaining increased, Khan decided it was time to look elsewhere.
A number of potential locations followed, with deals falling through for various reasons before attention returned to Putney.
The aim was to move away from central London without going too far, retaining access to existing customers while finding an area capable of providing a strong local customer base.
“We wanted to stay in a reasonably good area where we could grow our brand, stay in touch with our previous customers, but build new ones,” Khan explains.
The Putney unit had actually caught his eye before, but at the time it had already been taken. After several other possibilities came and went, Khan happened to discover that the premises was available again.
This time, Neutra Kitchen took it.
A different customer
The move has brought more than a new postcode.
Mayfair naturally attracted tourists, international visitors and passing trade, while Putney is giving Neutra Kitchen a more local customer.
“It’s a good, mature area,” Khan says. “You get people in their late 20s, young couples, but you also get a lot of families, so it’s actually quite a good mix.”
The difference has already influenced what is stocked.
Where a visitor in central London might have been searching for something to take home as a gift, Khan is increasingly seeing people shopping for their own kitchens – whether that is a new frying pan, saucepan or something for the table.
For an independent retailer, responding to those differences is essential.
“Like any good business, you have to make some changes according to what the client needs,” Khan says. “You have to adjust. If you think whatever worked for me there is going to work here, no. You have to make adjustments to fit into where you are.”
That does not mean abandoning Neutra Kitchen’s identity.
Different price points have been introduced, but Khan is conscious that everything still needs to sit comfortably alongside the rest of the range.
“They still fit in line with our ethos and what we have,” he says.
With the Putney store still in its infancy, further changes are inevitable as Khan gets a clearer picture of what local customers want.
Earning a place on the shelf
That willingness to change is reflected in Neutra Kitchen’s approach to buying.
Khan does not believe that a product which performs well today will automatically remain relevant tomorrow.
“What works this year may not work next year,” he says. “You’re always looking to add products. That never stops.”
Newness alone, however, is not enough.
The retailer looks at whether a product complements its existing range and, importantly, whether Khan is comfortable putting the Neutra Kitchen name behind it.
Even inexpensive products are considered carefully.
“Even if it’s a cheap item, you make sure it’s reasonably good quality,” he says. “It doesn’t mean because you buy a £2 item it’s not going to be good quality. You source it and make sure that it’s the right type.”
Khan takes a similarly independent-minded approach to discovering products. Trade shows form part of the picture – he attends Exclusively – but he does not want the buying strategy to become overly dependent on shows, agents or what happens to be fashionable elsewhere.
“You have to be careful what you take on board,” he says.
The reason is simple. When someone buys an item from Neutra Kitchen, any problem with that product can reflect on the retailer as much as the manufacturer.
Products will inevitably come and go as suppliers discontinue lines or customer tastes change, meaning Khan is constantly looking for replacements and additions.
At the moment, that approach is producing demand across a broad range of categories.
“Salt and pepper mills, cookware, chopping boards, frying pans and even some foodstuff,” he says. “It’s a bit of everything.”
Listening to the customer
Some of the most interesting additions have emerged organically.
Neutra Kitchen had not previously sold tea, for example, until Khan’s daughter – who had worked in the tea department at Fortnum & Mason – suggested the category.
“She’s a bit of a tea geek,” Khan laughs. “She was like, ‘You should get some teas.’”
The important question then became which teas would actually complement the store.
For Khan, that is an example of why retailers need to remain receptive to ideas rather than rigidly following a predetermined range.
“You’ve got to be able to listen to people, what they are requesting or what somebody suggests,” he says. “You think, ‘You know what? That could work.’ So we’re adding stuff all the time.”
Food is another area likely to grow, particularly products that fit with the broader idea of the healthy kitchen, while customer interest is influencing cookware materials too.
Khan points to stainless steel as one example. As consumers become more conscious about the materials and coatings used in cookware, he has noticed customers asking more questions and looking for alternatives.
That plays neatly into the principles on which Neutra Kitchen was originally built.
“It’s making sure you listen to your customers’ needs and what the market is,” he says.
Doing things differently
London consumers are hardly short of places to buy cookware and kitchenware. Independent specialists, department stores, multiples and online retailers all compete for attention.
Khan, however, does not spend too much time trying to replicate what anybody else is doing.
“We’re not trying to copy anybody,” he says.
Instead, Neutra Kitchen’s differentiation comes from the combination of products it carries and the way they are presented.
Colour is noticeable throughout the Putney shop, while its offer extends into pieces such as tables, chairs, stools and butcher’s block tables. It means a customer can discover items that sit slightly outside what they might expect from a conventional cookware retailer.
“I think we’re different,” Khan says.
Getting people through the door to discover that difference requires work across several channels.
Social media has become increasingly important. During the period between Mayfair and Putney, Khan used the time without a physical shop to develop Neutra Kitchen’s Instagram presence, establish a TikTok account and make improvements to its website.
Khan sees digital activity and physical retail as parts of the same job rather than separate businesses.
“It’s a combination,” he explains. “You’ve got to do everything. When people come into the store, you have to build relationships with customers and offer services, but then you’ve also got to do social media, check the website and make sure you’re doing that.
“It’s a constant evolution.”
For a small independent, of course, that means plenty of plates spinning at once.
“You have to be very hands-on, very involved,” he says. “We always listen to our customers and try to make the right decisions, and hopefully we can continue to grow.”
Believing in the high street
The challenges facing that growth will sound familiar to independents across the country.
Online competition is an obvious pressure, as are business rates, finding the right location and recruiting good staff. Shoplifting is another issue Neutra Kitchen has encountered.
Retailers along Putney High Street are part of a WhatsApp group that allows businesses to share information about incidents and known offenders.
“It is a problem,” Khan admits, but he is reluctant to allow the challenges to overshadow the opportunity.
“These are challenges that we know exist and you have to overcome them,” he says. “You have to keep believing that you’re making a difference.”
Perhaps the biggest statement of that belief is opening a physical shop at all.
At a time when the narrative around the high street can often be dominated by closures, Khan has moved Neutra Kitchen into a prominent high street location and is preparing to recruit and train more people as the business develops.
For the type of brand he wants Neutra Kitchen to become, he believes bricks-and-mortar retail remains essential.
“People still want to go and shop in bricks and mortar,” he says. “You can’t dismiss that.”
The opportunity, in his view, lies in creating high streets where people once again want to spend their time.
Retailers, cafés and other independents all contribute to making somewhere a destination rather than simply somewhere to pass through.
“We’ve got to revive our high streets and revive places of enjoyment,” Khan says. “Coffee shops are great, but you’ve got to go somewhere to enjoy that coffee.”
It brings us back to the experience he wants customers to have when they step inside Neutra Kitchen.
“We want people to come in and, just for that moment, get a little bit lost in the store.”
Standing among the cookware, colourful tableware, kitchen accessories and displays in Putney, you understand what he means.
The store is only just getting started. More products will arrive, displays will evolve, the team will grow and Khan expects the range to continue responding to what customers tell him.
Longer term, he is already open to the possibility of taking Neutra Kitchen elsewhere.
“There’ll probably be more locations somewhere down the road,” he says, although he is understandably unwilling to put a destination or timescale on that just yet.
After all, Putney has only been open for a very short period of time.
For now, the focus is on establishing the new store and building on the progress of the past six years.
He concludes: “We want to build on it and hopefully take Neutra Kitchen to the next level.”
Stay Ahead in the Housewares Industry
Never miss a beat in the world of housewares. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest industry news, insights, and trends—delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, get six issues a year of our expertly curated magazine, published at key points to keep you informed and inspired.
Subscribe now: https://housewareslive.net/registration/
