Managing a national programme of high quality fit-outs and refurbishments across Selfridges’ stores

Store Improvement Programme

As one of the world’s most exclusive and premier retailers, occupying some of the most valuable retail space in the UK, Selfridges is continuously commissioning projects to improve its stores and enhance the customer experience.

We have managed a national programme of Selfridges store improvements, typically consisting of works with occupied stores which have remained operational throughout. Project completion to high levels of quality and to fixed completion dates, within occupied stores, have been key drivers on all projects.

When starting out with Selfridges, the pipeline of work was unclear which posed difficulties in programming and controlling works efficiently.

The need for stores to remain operational while works are completed has required us to engage store stakeholders and contractors, acting as the main interface between them, to ensure disruption to store staff and customers has been minimised.

On occasions, changes to Selfridges’ strategies during delivery of live projects has required design changes to be accommodated while maintaining delivery in time for fixed completion dates.

We created a clear programme detailing all programmed and unprogrammed works, looking ahead over a ten-year pipeline. With this piece of work, we were able to bring clarity and control back into Selfridges’ property team, allowing its finance team to cost these works effectively and the executive board to sign them off.

By leading focused stakeholder engagement activities, we have been able to agree precisely where and when works would be taking place, so that key matters around access, deliveries and timings could be firmly agreed and understood by all parties. This has contributed to managing the more strategic risk to the works being completed and the store stocked with retail items on time, in strict accordance with Selfridge’s trading plans.

In response to a change to Selfridges’ fire strategy, we met with stakeholders and reported on the implications to sprinklers and fire detection systems within a store in which works were soon to commence. This resulted in agreement to upgrade the sprinkler system, with this additional work accommodated by agreeing a closure of the full trading area and working more days to ensure that we managed to retain the contractual opening date.