Marks & Spencer Beaugrenelle

Building a little bit of Great Britain in Paris.

This fit-out of a new Marks & Spencer store in Paris, spread over 4 levels and 4,612m², allows locals to enjoy Marks & Spencer’s clothing, as well as food favourites such as English crumpets, Scottish pancakes and Devon muffins.

Such is the popularity of its food that M&S wanted to open a new store in the French capital’s most populous neighbourhood, the 15tharrondissement. Our 90-year old relationship with the much-loved retailer meant they turned to Gleeds to manage the cost of the fit out.

A building site within a building site

The store was being built in a shopping centre that was being constructed at the same time. Plus 8 of the 20 subcontractors were from the UK, meaning there were language issues. Other challenges included:

• Logistical problems and incomplete work on site
• Interface between developer and contractor
• Overspend due to the construction of the wider shopping centre

Vive la difference

To make sure that everyone was talking the same language, we:

• Provided bilingual staff
• Worked closely with the developer to negotiate and discuss additional costs
• Supported our client, both in this project and to this day
• Anticipated and correctly estimated additional costs

Gleeds is also working for M&S in Belgium, on a project known as Le Toison d’Or – due to open in 2015