A good fit-out turns an empty unit into a business that sells. Whether it's a shop, café or salon, here's what to look for in a shopfitter.
Fitting out a unit
The commonest mistake in a first fit-out is building for opening day. Every inch goes into shopfloor, because shopfloor is what makes money — and then there's nowhere to take a delivery, nowhere to sit down, nowhere for the paperwork. Within a year the stockroom has migrated into the back of the selling space anyway, looking exactly as bad as it sounds.
The other thing to know before anyone quotes: read your lease. It tells you what you're allowed to change, whether you need the landlord's written consent, and — the expensive part — whether you must put it all back exactly as you found it when you leave. That last clause has bankrupted people who never read it.
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Directory
Shopfitting is a referral trade — the good firms are booked by word of mouth and rarely collect reviews. Across the whole region only one firm clears our bar, which isn't enough to make a list worth reading.
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