Pan-European commercial interiors specialist Agilité Solutions has marked its continued growth with the expansion into London and its first hire in the city – as the company celebrates its fourth year of trading and expected turnover in 2022 exceeding €40 million.
With existing bases in Paris, Milan, and Luxembourg, as well as a planned expansion into the US and Germany, the London headquarters will further support clients in the UK, that are looking to establish or grow their presence in mainland Europe.
The expansion of Agilité — which provides office, retail, and hospitality construction and fit-out work across the continent — follows 30% year-on-year growth and has included an extensive branding project to reshape its core principles, service set, and visual identity.
Operations in London are headed by development director Kirsty Shearer, with her local team bolstered by the appointment of assistant project manager, Kiran Kondrapu – a qualified civil engineer with a master’s degree in construction project management.
The company has also expanded its international remit, with the recent opening of a Luxembourg office and recruitment of several new colleagues across its French, Italian, and Luxembourg bases.
“Agilité has completed 151 projects since its inception in January 2018, amounting to 120,000 sqm of work, delivered across 11 countries – and a large number of those clients have a base of operations in the UK.” explained Kirsty Shearer.
“While we’ve had a presence in London since our inception, formalising this with our first UK hire is a crucial part of our business strategy. Currently, we’re managing the delivery of 14 Lids’ stores in the UK – 12 completed, two in progress – and retail rollouts are something we expect to increase in the coming months – therefore, it makes sense for us to have a permanent base in the UK.”
The Yorkshire-born founder and CEO of Agilité Solutions, Neil Coales, credits loyal customers — who account for 65% of the company’s order book — as the driving force behind its rapid expansion: “When we launched Agilité, the strategy was always to have a seamless pan-European business that could be operational in multiple locations for multiple customers.
“We don’t want to have an office in every country, rather we identify locations that best support our clients’ growth plans and the strong local supply chains we are building. The pursuit of quality is as much our goal as the overall expansion, which is why we allocated €1 million in investment in our people and systems (in 2021) as part of a five-year plan – it’s critical to our success.”
Agilité’s thriving client portfolio includes brands such as LVMH, Lids/NBA, Booking.com, Deutsche Börse, Fred Perry, Five Guys, and The Instant Group, as well as several major multinationals in the tech and finance sectors.
The news follows a successful year of trading in 2021, which saw a 30% growth in turnover and headcount, as well as exponential growth in revenue — amounting to €35million by the end of 2021, with a forecasted increase to €45million by 2022.