Shoproom
Retail fit out for a new store or a refit, planned around the rent
A permanent shop has to open on time, look like the brand deck the board signed off, and keep looking that way after a few thousand customers have leaned on the counter. We draw it, let you walk round it on screen, make the joinery and fixtures on our own floor and fit them.
What you are buying
Most retail units are handed over at Cat A: the landlord's base shell with power distribution, basic ceilings and floors and a fire alarm, and nothing that says who you are. Your fit-out is the Cat B layer on top. That means the shopfront, walls and ceilings where they change, flooring, lighting, counters, wall systems, display fixtures, point-of-sale and the finishes that make it your shop.
Knowing where the landlord's work stops and yours starts matters for the price and for the end of the lease, so we mark it on the drawings from the first survey.
The landlord's rules
Almost every shopping centre, and plenty of high street landlords, issue a technical guide your fit-out has to follow. It covers floor loading, what the shopfront may look like, where services connect, when contractors can work and which routes deliveries and waste must use. The design is drawn against it and submitted for approval before work starts.
Changing the outside of a shop usually needs planning permission unless it closely matches what is already there, and signage can need separate advertisement consent. Listed buildings need listed building consent. We tell you early which applies and prepare the drawings. Inside, Building Regulations apply as well: Part B covers fire safety and means of escape, and Part M covers access, so entrances need to be level or gently ramped and routes wide enough to use.
The programme
On site, a permanent retail fit-out commonly takes four to six weeks, but the real deadline is usually set by the length of the rent-free period, whatever the complexity. The way to protect that date is to make the counters, wall runs and fixtures on our floor while the unit is being stripped and prepared, so the on-site weeks are spent installing.
In centres that only allow noisy work out of hours, the programme is planned around nights from the start and priced that way. Nothing about that should be a surprise once the centre issues its rules.
Planning for the end of the lease
Reinstatement catches tenants out. Many leases require you to strip out your fit-out and return the unit to its original condition, and a landlord can claim dilapidations if you do not. We design fixtures to come out cleanly, and mark on the drawings what would need to be removed, so that cost is known at the start.
The first of several
If this store is the first of a rollout, it is worth saying so at the start. The drawings, fixtures and finishes can be designed to repeat, with a few parts that adapt to different unit sizes. The second shop then starts from a tested design, the fixtures are quicker to make, and what was learned fitting the first one goes into the next.
About retail fit-out
What is the difference between Cat A and Cat B in a retail fit out?
Cat A is the landlord's base shell: power distribution, basic ceilings and floors, and a fire alarm. Cat B is the tenant's fit-out on top of it, including the shopfront, lighting, counters, fixtures and finishes. Your fit-out price should say clearly which Cat A items it assumes are already in place.
Do you need planning permission to change a shopfront?
Often, yes. Altering a shopfront's appearance usually needs planning permission unless the change closely matches what is there in materials and proportions. Signage can need separate advertisement consent, and a listed building needs listed building consent. It is worth checking before the design is finished, because consent can take weeks.
Can a retail fit out happen while the shop keeps trading?
Yes, in phases, usually with the noisiest work done out of hours. The shop is split into zones, each one screened off, fitted and handed back before the next starts. It takes longer than a closed fit-out and needs careful planning around deliveries, dust and customer safety, but it keeps the tills running.
Send us the landlord's technical guide and your opening date.
A floor plan or a few photographs of the unit help. You'll hear straight away if the date looks tight.
info@stillroomcreative.com