A kitchen company has come up with a unique way to keep business going during lockdown.

Tradex Kitchens, based in the Park Farm Industrial Estate in Folkestone, has set up Britain's first drive-in showroom where customers can browse their wares from the safety of their own car.

Having converted an industrial unit into the one-of-a-kind showroom, prospective kitchen buyers can look at interiors on a large screen while an employee talks them through what's on offer.

Ben Pollard, Tradex Kitchens' sales manager, said: "We are a family business and had a group discussion to work out what we needed to do to reopen to keep our staff and customers safe.

"We’ve done various enhancements to the showroom - put up acrylic screens, put in high powered ventilation, supplied PPE etc.

"But if someone is still a bit wary of coming in, then how can we help them? I saw a video online about a drive-in cinema and thought that is was a great idea for the current situation and something we could set up relatively easily in our van store.

"The customer would call us when they’re outside, we’ll open the motorised shutters and they can then drive nose first into the large garage area. We’ve painted the floor and lined the walls so it looks less like the inside of an industrial unit.

"At the end on the passenger side is a wall mounted large screen tv. One of us would be in there to talk through the design, but the customer can stay in their car, with the windows up.

"We also have a selection of our door and worktop finishes down there, if customers want to borrow some, we can put them straight in the boot."

The service launched last Tuesday and is already proving a hit with shoppers.

Mr Pollard added: "We brought this out with the intention of it being for a minority of our customers, most people are happy to enter our Covid-secure showroom. However we have had a lot of interest and have bookings lined up to use it this week.

"They’ve really appreciated the effort we’ve made to accommodate them. On making an appointment we give customers the option of how they would like to be presented to, and even if they want to come in to the showroom as normal, it’s a good talking point."

Tradex Kitchens will be operating on an appointment-only basis for the time being, and has said that will continue until the two-metre rule has ended as two sets of customers in the store at once wouldn't be viable.

The company is also encouraging people to use their website to browse the kitchens on offer.

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