The National Association of Shopfitting (NAS) Design Partnership Awards take place next month and Triplar has been shortlisted for its work with Dr Martens.

Now closed, the Dr Martens pop-up store in Spitalfields, London, collected the ‘Pop-up Store of the Year’ award at last year’s Retail Week Interiors Awards 2010.

Designed by consultancy Campaign, the store was originally envisaged to be ultra-low-cost and temporary. It attracted critical acclaim from a number of retail commentators for its rugged, paired-back ‘rough luxe’ appearance and commercial success.Triplar completed The DMStore in just six days, fitting a combination of off-the-shelf industrial fittings, like simple light fittings which hang along one wall, and customised elements such as a cash desk made from salvaged crates.

The Triplar team also worked closely with Campaign to value engineer the design and ensure the project came in on budget.

The National Association of Shopfitters is the only trade association that exclusively promotes the shopfitting industry and has been doing so since 1919. The NAS Design Partnership Awards take place on May 19^th in London.

Work has now finished on an information desk within the UK’s second largest shopping centre.

Built by Triplar’s factory and installed by the shopfitting teams at the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, the desk was commissioned by point of purchase and retail marketing agency HRG.

The elliptical desk incorporates Staron tops, a curved stainless body and suspended canopy, back-lit graphics and colour-changing LED lighting.

Triplar’s display team has completed two stores for Nike in South Africa.

The two factory stores in Johannesburg were finished earlier this month in Atterbury and Woodmead.

Both stores have sales areas of 550 m2, within which Triplar’s display team fitted the latest fixtures and store graphics.

The team worked closely with a South African freight agent in shipping six containers to Johannesburg before undertaking the works in-store.

Both stores were completed on time and Triplar have now been commissioned to overhaul stores in Kenilworth, Cape Town, and Durban.

Project manager James Freeman said: “These two stores have been a great success and a real challenge to the team. All production had to be completed in time to catch the boat from Rotterdam to Johannesburg. And as always, making sure shipping and customs paperwork was completed in accordance with correct import regulations required a structured and diligent approach.”

Triplar has recently donated three computers to a local nursery and after school club.

Adam Moreland’s wife Laura works at the Favour’s Day Nursery in Moulton, and the Triplar project manager recognised that the company’s old computers could gain a new lease of life there.

Three workstations were delivered to the Nursery in Moulton, with two installed in a room for pre-schoolers and the other one to be used by the nursery’s Holiday Club – an afterschool club for children aged up to 11-years-old.

Triplar celebrated the launch of three new stores at the recently completed Westfield Stratford City shopping centre.

The shop fitting and UK factory teams finished new stores totalling nearly 400 sq m for bootmaker Dr Martens, men’s tailoring brand Frencheye and  fashion retailer Jeans West’s new outlet ahead of Westfield’s opening.

Works for Dr Martens and Frencheye included building a number of furniture items at Triplar’s production facility, including cash desks, gondolas, freestanding units and mirrors.

MD Tim Rodwell said: “The buzz and excitement surrounding the launch of Westfield has been phenomenal, and it’s not very often that you get the opportunity to work on three stores in a development of this scale.

“With contractors covering every square inch on-site to ensure their stores opened on time, we’ve had to ensure our approach is joined up and all aspects of the supply chain work like clockwork.”

Triplar’s work on the Frencheye store involved a full shop fit; encompassing all mechanical and electrical works, decoration, manufacture and installation of all furniture, and fitting of the shop front and glazing. The team also provided a turnkey fit-out for Dr Martens and installed everything but the furniture and fittings for Jeans West.

Shamim Hyder is a director of Jeans West, which stocks Levi’s and G-Star. He said: “This project ran very late in the concept planning stage and we only had four weeks to build, merchandise and open the store. A lot of people were doubtful it could be achieved in this time scale.

“We were assured by Triplar that they could deliver the store on time. Having worked with them in the past we had complete confidence in their planning and execution of this complex project. Completed on a tight deadline, we are very happy with the high standard of finish in-store.”

Triplar and retail design consultancy D4R have joined forces to spearhead the expansion of iconic bootmaker Dr. Martens’ high street presence.

Working alongside full service retail marketing and design agency Design4Retail (D4R), Triplar has completed three stores in Spitalfields, London, Westfield Stratford City and at North West shopping destination Liverpool One.

The ‘look and feel’ of the new stores embraces Dr. Martens new global retail design concept, showcasing both the brand’s A/W-11 footwear range and the latest clothing and accessories collection.

Triplar worked closely with D4R to bring the agency’s designs to life and all three stores have now opened to the public. All furniture has been produced at Triplar’s Northamptonshire production facility before being fitted on-site by its shop fitting team.

Triplar works throughout Europe and beyond, and counts Nike, Levi’s, Blacks and Lush among its long-standing clients. MD Tim Rodwell said: “We have a great relationship with both Dr. Martens and D4R and this project’s success is testament to our strong links.

“Both our production and shop fitting teams demonstrated terrific attention to detail in meeting the exacting standards that Dr. Martens’ brief and D4R’s designs required. These new stores underline the brand’s development into an exciting high street presence, and we’re delighted to be part of Dr. Martens’ continued expansion.

“Being able to work on the Spitalfields store has been especially exciting for the team as it is close to the popular and highly-acclaimed pop-up store we worked on for Dr. Martens, which closed last year.”

D4R worked with the Dr. Martens team to design a store concept that references the brand’s British manufacturing heritage and features elements such as exposed wooden floors and brick walls, plus leather sofas in Dr. Martens classic ‘Oxblood’ tone. This is interspersed with modern technology including iPads mounted into leather-bound books that allow customers to browse drmartens.com.  Contemporary wall niches highlight the brand’s key seasonal styles and each store houses a special ‘Made in England’ zone to showcase the product made in our Northamptonshire factory.

In addition, a show reel of films showing ‘The Art of Industrial Manufacture’ and an installation of original Dr. Martens shoe lasts creates a feature wall in each store. Exclusive bespoke wallpaper displays archive images of the surrounding area and vintage newspaper clippings from local newspapers dated 1st April 1960; the date the first pair of Dr. Martens 1460 8-eye boots were produced.

Triplar has completed work on two new stores for Aquascutum – introducing a new store concept in just a few weeks – ahead of work on a further two new outlets in 2012.

Triplar initially met with Mark Clark, Aquascutum Group Design Manager, to discuss creating a pop-up shop in ‘The Village’ area of London’s flagship Westfield White City shopping centre. The team fulfilled the brief, converting an all-glass fronted unit into to an impressive Aquascutum store in just a few days.

Subsequently Triplar was invited to lead, from concept to realisation, the development of a new store for the brand at Canary Wharf, the heart of London’s financial district.

The project involved developing a new design directly with Aquascutum, producing prototypes at Triplar’s Northamptonshire factory for approval and then the production of unitary items and furniture for installation on site.

The Canary Wharf unit has around 65 sq. metres of retail floor space and 30 sq. metres of back of house space and needed significant remedial work. Triplar’s shop fitting team stripped out existing columns, repositioned lighting and manufactured and installed a perimeter wall system illuminated with LED lighting, as well as suspended ceilings.

The overall colour theme was white and gold with a timber floor and featured profiled wall panels, a white cash desk and bespoke angular display tables. The fit also required the building of two new luxury changing rooms and the re-oiling of the existing floor.

In the back of house area the team completed new decoration work and changes to office and toilet facilities, as well as installing racking and a new electric cupboard. During the course of the contract additional fixtures and fittings were added to ensure the full range of Aquascutum products could be displayed.

The whole process was completed in 14-days, on budget and entirely to the client’s satisfaction, demonstrating the kind of close liaison and professionalism that Triplar excels at. The establishment of a close working relationship with the centre management at Canary Wharf was also vital and Triplar’s Project Manager, Tony Reilly, managed all aspects of logistics to meet the exacting standards of the brand and complete the project as quickly as possible to capitalise on Christmas trading opportunities.

Following fantastic feedback, the new design is now being planned for two further stores due to be completed early in the New Year, including the Aquascutum store at Bicester Designer Outlet Village.

Throughout the last year, Triplar has been working closely with Freehand, an exciting company that integrates digital screens and signage into the customer experience and fixtures within stores.

Thanks to a referral from Frencheye following its full shop fit at its Westfield Stratford store, Triplar secured several projects working with Freehand for Calvin Klein.

These have involved developing box units of various sizes to accommodate digital screens, and which are designed for window displays. They are produced in the Triplar factory before graphics are applied and screens fitted by Freehand.

Triplar’s factory has now completed three display boxes and cladding for a column that included digital displays and was used at a Calvin Klein event in Belgium.

Triplar is undertaking accreditation through two industry leading schemes to underline the company’s on-going commitment to Environmental Health and Safety

While only applicable to work undertaken in the UK, participation in the Considerate Constructors Scheme and PAS82 – which specifies a shop fitting management system – will benefit Triplar’s retail display and shop fitting operations in Europe and beyond.

The Considerate Constructors Scheme outlines a number of criteria focused on improving on-site working practices and include:

• Being Considerate (to all parties affected by your work)
• Focus on the Environment
• Appearance
• Being a Good Neighbour
• Being Respectful
• Focus on Safety
• Being Responsibe
• Being Accountable

Two inspections are due to take place in the coming weeks before Triplar is assured a place on the scheme.

Created for the shop fitting industry, PAS82 has been developed by the National Association of Shopfitters (NAS) with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to raise standards within the industry. It promotes quality and best practice procedures and provides recommendations on various business aspects, including:

• Corporate governance
• Health, Safety and Environmental policies
• Training
• Innovation and Value Engineering
• Customer Service

Accreditation will follow a detailed application and assessment process that will hopefully be completed early in 2012.

Triplar’s factory has recently been hard at work building a range of furniture for Dr. Martens store roll-outs in 2012.

The skilled team has been building a number of items, including benches, coffee tables, central drawer units and internal location blocks.

Triplar has been appointed to undertake full turnkey fit-outs of Dr. Martens stores in 2012, completing everything from designing store layouts through to handover.