Heron Project Management

If you have signed a franchise agreement for a restaurant, bar or drive-thru and now need the site found, surveyed, priced and built to the brand’s standards, Heron Project Management can run the project for you from the first feasibility survey to handover. It is an independent firm of project managers, building surveyors and quantity surveyors based in Redditch, with staff in central London, the Midlands, East Anglia and the South West, so it covers sites across the UK. You can compare it with the shopfitters and contractors in our franchise property and fit-out and restaurant fit-out sections.

What it does for franchisees and franchisors

Heron specialises in leisure and hospitality. Its franchise page says it understands how the franchise model works and that its service keeps you on track with the contractual obligations you have to the brand, while working within the budget a franchisee usually has. For franchisors it offers multi-site roll-outs, and it works with your nominated designers so that brand standards and operating principles are kept through design and build. Our guide to how franchisors keep standards consistent across a network covers why that matters, and the franchise agreements guide explains the obligations a franchisee signs up to.

The services it lists for franchise projects are:

• Building surveying before you commit, from feasibility and condition surveys to full building surveys.
• Project management of every supplier, consultant and contractor, day to day, so the site opens on programme.
• Quantity surveying and cost management, from the first cost plan to a detailed schedule of works and purchase orders. It tenders shopfit costs with suppliers and contractors to get the best value.
• Health and safety coordination before and during construction, with an operation and maintenance manual at handover.
• Design support, including measured surveys, technical and planning drawings, interior design and 3D visuals.

Restaurant brands it has worked with

Its own case studies describe work on more than 50 new Burger King restaurants in the UK, from monitoring landlord new builds and surveying potential sites to drive-thrus, inline units and remodels. It has spent six years helping Hickory’s Smokehouse open more than ten restaurants, and it works pre-acquisition for Slim Chickens, coordinating landlords and the consultants needed for planning permission and statutory approval, then managing construction and fit-out ready for opening. It also managed a 16-week conversion of an empty office block into The Alchemist bar and restaurant in Glasgow. A Slim Chickens franchise owner is quoted on its site describing the team as efficient at meeting deadlines.

Who runs it

Heron was founded in 2022. Mike Stephenson, who runs the firm day to day with Sally Stephenson, has more than 25 years in office, retail, hospitality and leisure projects and was previously a principal contractor for leading leisure brands, including a brand roll-out. Beyond franchise work, the firm also acts as employer’s agent, does party wall advice, landlord and tenant work, fund and bank monitoring and reinstatement cost assessments.

To talk through a site, call the office on 01789 576 066 or use the contact details on its website. If you want a contractor to do the build itself, DBSJ, db designs uk and ASK Shopfitting all fit out franchise units, and site selection specialists can help before you sign a lease.

Source: heronpm.co.uk

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