Speciality-Food-Magazine-JanuaryFebruary2025

breathe, too, and ideally keep it open so that customers gain a sense of connection with the chefs preparing their food. Car parks are often low on the priority list but are an important consideration with new builds and full refurbishments. “A lot of rural retailers’ car parks aren’t big enough, but there are formulas you can use to determine how large your car park should be based on the number of covers in your restaurant,” says Paul. “Make sure you consider dwell time – a lot of local authorities don’t – as if people are sitting down to a meal before or after having a browse and buying a few items, their car is taking up space for a lot longer than you might originally plan for.” specialityfoodmagazine.com 29 than how to get people through the till.” Paul says that when it comes to building work it’s important to give builders a strict timescale to work to. “If there’s no set deadline, the work will never get done,” he says. “The reality is that by that date the work is probably not going to be completely finished, but you’re more than likely to be in a position to be able to open.” This is why Paul suggests bringing in a quantity surveyor and a project manager, too – it will cost a chunk of money, but you’ll make up for that with the funds that you’ll save by topping the builders over- spending and will help keep them to timescales. PLAN FOR EFFICIENCY Once you’ve finalised your product range and are confident that it will sell, simple things like having deeper shelves or under-shelf storage, so you can keep more products on-shelf rather than having staff going backwards and forwards between the shelf and the stock room, is a great move. Creating a flow through the store so that customers can’t exit straight away is more than a case of increasing dwell time and opportunities to sell – it can also help to avoid all-too-common problem of theft. THINK SUSTAINABILITY “If you’re refurbishing, put in as many sustainable elements as possible,” Paul recommends. As well as being a positive step for the business, it’ll comfort and attract eco-minded shoppers. “Consumers are looking for things like solar panels on the roof, and something small like a box that displays carbon savings and so on, visible to your customers, doesn’t cost much money at all but has a lot of value in terms of communicating your ethos.” Bring in the experts Once you’ve got a plan together and are clear on what you need to get out of it, that’s the time to bring in the external experts. Michael doesn’t recommend bringing them into the project too soon as they can wow with innovative designs and ideas that might not work for you day-to- day; and make sure that there are clear parameters for everyone’s role. Once the experts are in place, it’s time to step back and focus on your product range and the customers’ experience. “What happens a lot is that shop owners get sucked into a build because it’s exciting, then these things are a mad rush at the end of the process,” says Michael. “They worry about the roof rather FLOURISH AT GLENAVON FARM