19/05/11 Financial Times reports on Shopjacket 'helping our high streets'

Fake businesses are springing up in city centres across the UK. Local Authorities hope that colourful graphic designs taped inside windows or screwed to the fascia and featuring a range of shop types - from hairdressers to delicatessens - will conceal the impact of the recession and restore vitality to increasingly derelict high streets. 

This week it was announced that Mary Portas, the British TV retail guru, is to carry out a government-backed review aimed at halting the decline of the high street. Announcing the appointment, David Cameron prime minister, said: "The high street should be at the very heart of every community, bringing people together, providing essential services and creating jobs and investment; so it is vital that we do all that we can to ensure that they thrive." 

Medway council, which commissioned a virtual tea shop in Kent, says it has received expressions of interest from a number of retailers wanting to occupy the space. 

Paul Murphy, a chartered surveyor and co-founder of Shopjacket, which installs fake shop fronts, has spent two days with a US company looking to roll out the idea there. He believes the shop fronts, which cost from £1,700 and are made from foam board, vinyl or aluminium, "show customers they are not alone and someone recognises there is a problem". He adds: "We always get a rough ride from traders initially. But, at the very least, it attracts publicity."

Neil Wilson, a co-founder of Shopjacket who oversees design, says the shop wrappers have stimulated interest from the private as well as the public sector. Shopjacket is working with BMW on a fake showroom front.