How a Deelux Kitchen Is Made: Inside Our Winsford Factory

Most kitchen companies sell kitchens. Deelux builds kitchens. It’s a distinction that gets lost in showroom conversations, so this is a walk-through of what actually happens in our Winsford factory between “signed order” and “installed in your home.” It’s also why we can back every British-made kitchen we deliver with a 15-year cabinetry guarantee.

Who actually builds the cabinets?

Andy Jervis does. Our Chief Fabricator and one of the three Jervis family directors, Andy has been building Deelux carcasses since 2004. His line is “nobody else builds my carcasses.” That isn’t marketing — walk into the factory on any weekday and you’ll find him on the saw. The factory team of cabinet-makers, sprayers, painters and QC have all been there for years, and every one of them has their own initials go on the back of every cabinet they finish.

Step 1: the order becomes a cut list

When you sign off a Deelux quote, the 3D design produced for you (the same one used in your free 3D visuals) is converted into a cut list — every panel, every door, every shelf, every plinth, with dimensions to the millimetre. Our cutting machines read the list and cut the 18 mm MFC carcass panels, the solid hardwood door frames and the painted door panels from stock board.

Critical detail: every cabinet is cut to your specific size. We don’t force customers into “standard modules” and fill the gaps with spacers. Awkward walls, sloping ceilings, odd alcoves — all designed as real cabinets, not filler panels.

Step 2: carcass assembly

18 mm MFC panels, dowel-and-glue jointed, with a 15 mm solid back (not the 8 mm hardboard many brands use). Blum soft-close runners fitted at this stage. Back panel routed for mains cables if the cabinet will house an appliance. Plinth rails, feet and adjustable levellers pre-drilled. Every carcass is assembled and squared before it leaves the carcass shop.

The 15 mm back panel is the one spec detail that does the most invisible work: it’s what holds the cabinet square over 20 years, stops wall cabinets bowing under load, and makes every Deelux kitchen feel solid when you close a drawer.

Step 3: doors

Doors are the face of the kitchen, so this is where most of the factory floor space goes. Flat-slab modern doors are machined from high-pressure laminate or painted MDF. Shaker lay-on doors are 5-piece, jointed, sanded and grain-filled. In-frame doors get a hardwood face frame built around every cabinet opening — one of the reasons in-frame takes 50% longer to build than lay-on.

Step 4: finishing

Three finishes, three different booths:

• gloss finish: factory-sprayed lacquer, polished. Seven coats minimum for a true mirror surface.
• matt finish: factory-sprayed matt lacquer with anti-fingerprint additive. Less dramatic than gloss, significantly easier to live with.
• hand-painted finish: primer, two colour coats, hand-sanded between, final lacquer. Every painted door is colour-matched to the exact pot the customer chose. Farrow & Ball, Little Greene, Paint & Paper Library — all matched in-house.

Step 5: quality control

Every kitchen is dry-assembled on the factory floor before it’s packed. Every cabinet. Every drawer. Every door. The installer who’ll fit the kitchen in your home is usually the one doing the dry-assembly — so if there’s a problem, it’s caught here, not at your house on a Tuesday morning.

QC check covers: squareness, handle alignment, drawer runners, paint consistency across doors from the same cabinet. Any door that fails is re-painted. Any cabinet that fails is re-built.

Step 6: packing and delivery

Cabinets are packed in the order the installer needs them, not in “random order from the shelf.” Delivered on our own vans to Cheshire, south Merseyside and north Shropshire — most delivery runs are under 90 minutes from the factory. That proximity is why retakes (wrong measurement, damaged cabinet) take days, not weeks.

Why it matters for the customer

Three practical outcomes of building in-house:

1. Non-standard sizes are free. We don’t charge extra for a cabinet 823 mm wide because the alcove is 823 mm wide.
2. The 15-year guarantee is honoured by us, not a third party. If a carcass fails in year 12, we build a replacement in Winsford. There’s no importer to chase.
3. The three directors know every kitchen. Mike on sales, Jenny on design, Andy on the factory floor. If you phone Deelux, you speak to one of them. Read more on Why Deelux.

See the factory in person

Factory tours aren’t a marketing gimmick — we do them because every customer who visits the factory signs off their design with more confidence. If you’re considering a Deelux kitchen, ask your designer to arrange a visit after your first showroom appointment. Factory is a 20-minute drive from the Chester showroom, Nantwich showroom or Warrington showroom showroom.

Related: traditional kitchens, modern kitchens, hand-painted finish.