Cumberland News - Report on their recent Shopjackets (Apr 2013)

Three empty shops in Carlisle's English Street have been given false fronts to improve their appearance and attract potential occupiers. 

The colourful graphic designs - which feature shop types - are either taped inside the windows or screwed to the fascia so they can be removed and reused as required.

Three vacant shops under the Crown & Mitre Hotel have been made to look like a shoe shop, florists and an upmarket boutique.

Former Clarkes is an upmarket boutique

The design also features contact information for the joint letting agents - Carigiet Cowen and Green & Partners - to encourage potential occupiers to make an approach. 

The former Social Bar in Lowther Street has already received a similar treatment at the behest of the letting agent there, Walton Goodland. 

This innovative approach to marketing empty shops was praised by other retailers when Carlisle City Business Group held its inaugural meeting last month. 

Shopjacket, based in Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear, carried out the work in English Street this week. 

A fourth unit - the recently closed First Choice travel agency - will follow next month and Shopjacket is in talks to do the same at Hoopers vacant department store in Castle Street. 

Paul Murphy, who founded and runs Shopjacket, said "We have fitted these all over the UK, and in Europe.

"But this [English Street] is the first time a client has taken the big step to treat multiple properties on a high street and combine this with a marketing campaign with brochures showing the properties in their best light."

He added: "These are expensive properties and they need to look their best.

"Hopefully, it will encourage independent retailers to look at them and think. 'Yes, we can make a go of it'."

The first parade of Shopjackets...with a strong marketing campaign

Pop-up shops to test trading in North East town centres, The Journal 5 Feb 13

Town centres struggling in the continued tough economic outlook are being advised to experiment with pop-up shops.

The recent phenomenon, which allows a business to test trading by opening up for a short time in an empty space, has won backing from the Government. (Read more..)

Shopjacket wraps up voids - Shopping Centre Magazine (Dec 12 issue)

This year's 'State of the Retail Nation' survey, conducted by Business Blueprints, found that centre managers rate the management of empty units as the biggest single challenge they face. And although the Local Data Company reported town centre vacancy rates reduced to below 14.5 per cent in October for the first time in 2012, it is still worryingly high at 14.41 per cent.

In response to a swathe of retail property owners and managers at a loss as to what to do with voids, a new product aims to assist with the marketing of empty units while making them look as attractive as possible.

Shopjacket was set up two years ago and is the brainchild of Paul Murphy, a chartered surveyor with 26 years of experience in commercial property. It was while working as a retail consultant for North Tyneside Council that he started looking into "what was wrong with retail and what could be done to put it right". (Read more..)

Architects Journal report on 'How to fake the Christmas Shopping'

Sophisticated fake shopfronts enter the festive spirit, writes James Pallister. 

The Tyneside firm Shopjacket has had a fruitful year, winning a large contract from Armagh City Council to improve 15 buildings and sites in a joint venture with contractor JPM, and several lines of enquiry from Councils with European Regional Development Fund to spend. (Read more..)

Shopjacket to unveil back-lit Christmas Jacket in Whitley Bay

Christmas is coming and the season of light switch-ons is nearly upon us but one North East firm is illuminating something rather different tomorrow night. (Read more..)