F&B DESIGN: TRENDS VERSUS BUDGETS AND CHOOSING THE RIGHT BUILD CONTRACTOR

The battle between building a restaurant that can feature and compete in design awards while ensuring Capex is capped at a reasonable ROI for eager investors and finding the right build partner to bring it to life on a budget has been a challenge for the booming 'designer' F&B industry.

- GABRIELLE F. MATHER

I coined the phrase 'designer restaurants' with full awareness of myself having advocated design over budgets numerous times to certain brands. I believe concept is king, followed by everything else serving its brilliant execution and operation. Wisdom is in ensuring we bring design and concept to life in interiors, well executed with quality build, delivered on time within budgets to operate profitably.

SYNERGISING DESIGN

The cost of design and build takes up the highest percentage of budget allocation to Capex. Around 60% could be assigned to this crucial part of launching a restaurant. As designs become more fluid and creative, with multiple 'designers' mushrooming up, promising trendy designs at rock bottom prices, the struggle is not just to safeguard true creativity and architectural genius but to stop this over duplication of similar look and feel concepts.