Collaboration and innovation power C A Design Services growth

C A Design Services' Director Guy Moates tells RTIH about his company’s work in the retail space and what makes it stand out in a competitive market.

Last year, UK-based C A Design Services celebrated its 35th anniversary. The company began life during the early days of computer aided design (CAD). It focused on enabling clients to succeed in capturing, understanding and optimising their spaces andwon business from big players in the offshore industry, hence its head office being situated in Great Yarmouth. 

“Back then we were basically offering CAD engineering services,” says Guy Moates (pictured above right with new Format Development Manager Ed Smith). “We attended a CAD conference and our then technical director bumped into a retailer (Boots) and we started to do some surveys for them. This was around 25 years ago. We then thought, hey, there’s a market in retail for our services and the skills we have. They translated very well from an offshore industry to the retail space.” 

Moates spearheaded a drive to investigate the marketplace and the company slowly moved out of the engineering sector and into retail. At that time, some retailers’ architects were toying with CAD, using it for basic purposes, such as laying out floorplans. But pen and paper and stencils were still very much the order of the day.

“The strategy of the business has been to continually push forward with that and develop, grow and widen our service offering,” Moates observes. 

“We had software developers inhouse, which we used for the likes of productivity improvements, so we could then clearly see there was a marketplace to develop those tools to help retailers plan their shops, report on how many fixtures there were, how their space was being used. We eventually packaged that into StoreSpace®, around 14 years ago. And that is a key part of the business today.”

StoreSpace® is a macro space management platform based on AutoCAD and used by store planning teams to improve productivity, standards and profitability. It includes the ability to integrate with Nielsen's micro-space software. By connecting micro and macro space management data and processes, planners are able to manage their planograms directly from their floorplans. 

C A Design Services nowadays helps international retailers create profitable stores using  StoreSpace and StoreView® virtual tours, supported by the UK’s largest retail planning resource and surveyors working throughout the UK.

“It’s a competitive marketplace but we’re very much in a unique place in terms of being able to offer all our services and joining them up. Our USP is linking it all together.”

Retail customers

2020 has started with a burst of activity, both with existing long-term clients and some new wins.

The companyworks with big and small retailers across a wide range of segments. On the fashion side, it counts Primark and M&S as clients. It also does a lot of work in the food sector, with FMCG customers including Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons and recently signed customers in the fuel retailing and convenience sector.

In the DIY space, meanwhile, there is B&Q. The convenience food and pharmacy sectors are also key. There is a common theme across all of these segments. The retailers are all essentially selling stuff from shelves or rails, so they have shared issues, problems and needs. 

“Working across segments, it is healthy to learn from one to help another. It’s also a great source of variety for our staff, to plan across a nice variety of customers,” says Moates. 

“Every customer is different, some retailers have internal teams to do what we do, so we offer complimentary services to help them with their peaks in workloads. Others completely outsource their store planning function to us. Some use all our services and others pick and choose,” he continues.

“We work internationally, surveying all across Europe and StoreSpace® is available in 10 different languages. The UK is cutting edge in terms of the tech and how hard the retailers work their spaces. Space may be cheaper in other countries, so the retailers are always interested in what’s happening in the UK.”

C A Design Services has been working with many of its customers for a long time, so it has built up a partnering approach with them. “That is really important, because we need to understand why they do things in a certain way,” Moates says.

“That way we can consistently deliver the right plan, the right space and you can only get that by getting very close with the client and understanding their thinking, moving beyond the standard client/supplier relationship where we are an extended part of their team. They can pick up the phone and speak to the person that worked with them on their last project.”

What else sets C A Design Services apart from the competition? 

“It is our depth of experience and breadth of services, using the right person for the right job. We’ve got architects, designers, surveyors, planners, 3D visualisation people, software developers, and are able to put a virtual team together to work with a client and meet their needs precisely,” Moates responds.

“We work proactively across our offices and disciplines. There are a number of competitors in the various segments we operate in, but there is nobody who stands up to us, exactly mirroring everything we do.”

“Retail is a very exciting place to be”

There has been much talk of the death of the high street, with various big hitters struggling in recent times. But there will always be a need for bricks and mortar stores, Moates argues. 

“You can see retailers succeeding in this area, despite the current economic environment. Primark, for instance. They haven’t even got an online offering but are growing at a phenomenal rate. And it isn’t just at the discount end of the scale. Next are also doing well. We remain very optimistic and are growing to meet demand. Retail is a very exciting place to be.”

Those doing well are making shopping more of an experience as opposed to a purely transactional affair. Store planning and use of technology play a big part here. Take, for instance, Amazon Go's cashierless stores in the States. “That kind of thing is very exciting,” says Moates.

This is where StoreView plays a major role. “That kind of technology is saving retailers time and money and also helping their environmental footprint by stopping people from jumping in their cars to visit stores,” says Moates.

The right mix

Retail has undergone huge change over the last 35 years. The rise of online shopping has seen retailers factor the likes of Click and Collect and self-scanning technologies into their store spaces. 

C A Design Services has proved adept at keeping pace with a fast- moving sector, thanks to a mix of innovative solutions, long-term client relationships (with the emphasis on collaboration) and quality and integrity.

“We’re really excited by how fast things are changing and we’re ready to embrace it with our offering,” Moates concludes. 

Guy Moates will be at the EuroShop exhibition in Dusseldorf from 17th to 19th February, Hall 11, Stand F31 on the Department for International Trade Stand.