Are German kitchens always best?? Hacker vs Sheraton vs Ashley Ann

[gabbybaby]

I'm talking about within the same price bracket, so like for like I hope. I have had quotes for a Hacker kitchen, and a Sheraton kitchen. Between those two, I felt as though the Hacker was better. However, I'm thrown a bit by a quote we got from an independent kitchen designer who sources Ashley Ann kitchens from Scotland (I'm in NW London). I don't know anything about Ashley Ann and as we're so far away, I have no way of viewing them other than their website. However, (bearing in mind the designer isn't VAT registered as she does this part time, so Ashley Ann quote is VAT free, the others include VAT in the quote), she is able to provide the cabinets for significantly less than the Hacker quote (we're talking about the different between £9.5k for Ashley Ann, £10.5k for Sheraton and £12.5k for Hacker on cabinets only). It's a fairly significant amount, but I'm wary of ordering a kitchen for that price that I can't view in a showroom.
By the way, we also got a quote for Schuller Next 125 range and the cabinets were coming out to about £16k which was way over what we could spend.
I'd appreciate thoughts from anyone who knows anything about Ashley Ann, and how they might compare to German kitchens.

[rattling]

We have an Ashley Ann kitchen. We have a local showroom where we spent a lot of time, and the designer was amazing at understanding the style I was looking for and getting the most we could into a pretty small space. However, I'm not blown away by the quality and as we arranged our own fitters (though someone who works with AA a lot) they pretty much ended all input on delivery. There was a frustrating delay with worktops, and the wrap on a couple of doors is lifting a bit at the corner after a year which they blame on us bashing the doors.

[AAK2016]

We used Ashley Ann Kitchens and the sold us our kitchen and 'project management' on misleading and inaccurate information. We were quoted 2 weeks for completion as we had such a small kitchen. After our money was paid we were told that in fact it was 5 weeks. The project took 10 weeks to complete. Delays caused by kitchen fitters not turning up, design changes on numerous occasions due to incorrect measurements and several requests for more money due additional issues caused by Ashley Ann. They even damaged the wall in our living room, we had to redecorate at our own cost. The Director of Sales came to visit and stated it was standard to cut out a piece of our window frame to fit a cupboard, has anyone else seen this in a Kitchen?