Inchcape plc

Inchcape plc is a global automotive distribution business headquartered at 22A St James's Square in London. When the lease on their existing space came up for review, the company considered both relocation and refurbishment before choosing to invest in the space they already occupied. The priority was to bring the office into line with the way the business actually worked, making better use of the floor area and improving the range of environments available to the team.

The brief carried two significant constraints. The first was programme: 10,000 sq ft across two floors would need to be refurbished with the building remaining fully occupied throughout, requiring careful phasing and close coordination with the client to avoid disrupting day-to-day operations. The second was sustainability: Inchcape wanted to retain and reuse as much of the existing furniture as possible, replacing only where the revised layout or updated requirements made the existing stock unsuitable.

Fluid had previously worked with Inchcape on a reception area upgrade at the same building, and was appointed to lead the furniture strategy for the full refurbishment. Fluid worked alongside Zentura, the group's fit-out and refurbishment arm, which delivered the enabling works. Fluid's scope covered the full furniture approach: assessing the existing stock, identifying what could be retained and repositioned, and specifying new furniture to close the gaps the redesign introduced.

The layout changes centred on a deliberate shift in how the open-plan floors were organised. Individual desks were replaced with smaller units, allowing more workstations to be accommodated within the existing floor area without increasing the building's footprint. The space freed up by the denser workstation layout was used to introduce a greater variety of settings. Boardroom and meeting furniture was upgraded throughout, and a mix of single and meeting pods was installed to give teams better access to spaces for focused work, smaller conversations and video calls — types of activity that the previous layout had not adequately supported.

The project was delivered across two live floors, with Inchcape's teams operational in the building throughout the programme. Sixty desks and chairs were installed as part of the wider works, with delivery completed a week ahead of the agreed programme and within the client's budget.

The completed office gives Inchcape a working environment that reflects how the business operates today — a higher density of individual workstations, a more considered provision for the interactions that happen between formal meetings, and a boardroom and meeting suite that better represents the company. The project demonstrates how a furniture strategy built around reuse, rather than wholesale replacement, can deliver a material improvement in how a space functions while reducing both cost and waste.