Every five years or so most shopping centres as part of their lease conditions require tenants to refurbish their retail businesses. Depending on how worn and ‘aged’ the shop looks, it can be a costly exercise that can eat into a business’s profits. The secret to ensuring that you dip into your pockets as little as possible when your tenancy lease comes up for renewal begins right at the start with designing your initial store for longevity.

Designing For Longevity

In Focus Homewares at Robina Town Centre is a classic case. When we first designed the store over a decade ago we were focused on creating a store that would not ‘date’. Being ‘clever’ and contemporary is easy. The secret to longevity is to design for longevity. Nobody has a crystal ball to know what and won’t be in fashion and the best advice is to not design with the whims of fashion in mind. In Focus utilises simple earthy colours and finishes that have stood the test of time, and attention to detail has ensured that the finishes have withstood the test of daily use.

The Value of Good Design

As a testament to our vision to ensure that our Clients get the best value, In Focus at the time of its five year lease renewal and obligatory refurbishment, because of its condition and the fact that it hadn’t dated, required no internal work and the exterior was simply re-painted to match the existing colour and texture. Then after a decade since the shop was built, a time when 90% of stores look old and tired, In Focus still required no new internal fit out and the Centre only asked for a facelift to the exterior.

Shopfront Facelift

Below are images of the facelift, which we have kept simple and have integrated to match the interior. Costs were kept to a minimum by utilising common building materials, but materials that created the right visual impact and were hard wearing. Printed Barestone compressed fibre cement sheeting from Cemintel was used to clad  the shopfront. The side shopfront window is finished with a grand plywood frame in which the plywood ends have been glued together.

Refocus

Reconnecting with our Client after a decade gave us the opportunity to revisit their business and see how it had changed as it has grown and how this would affect how we gave the shopfront a facelift. The refurbishment of a business is the perfect time to focus on what is now important to the business and ensure that the make over is in line with the business’s vision.

Investing In Good Design Makes Sense

At The Design Creative our goal is to add long term value to your business. Design isn’t simply about creating something pretty. It is about focusing on what your business needs to succeed and finding ways to achieve this goal. It is about creating a recognisable brand that best caters for your target customers. Longevity and relevance of your store is part of this to ensure that your business is able to maximise profits long term. Smart retailers understand the value of good design and know that the success of their business rests in the hands of their team of people which includes their designer, shop fitter, the Centre, their suppliers and their retail staff.

We invest in the long term value of our Clients by providing them our extensive knowledge and experience of the retail and food industries which sees many of our Clients coming back again and again for a quality service they now and trust and can rely upon. Successful business is about creating relationships with your customers and providing customers with value.

We look forward to hearing from you and working with you to ensure that your business starts and continues on the right foot to success.