Blog
Practical articles on retail installation, roll-outs, series installations, working in Germany and across Europe. Written by the people who are responsible for schedules and capacity.
A1 certificate in practice: installation work in the EU
In short The A1 certificate (A1-Bescheinigung in German) shows which country a person is covered by for social security. An installation team going to work in another EU ...
Oct 19, 2026
Subcontractor documents in Germany: what clients expect
In short If you want to work in Germany as a subcontractor in store fitting, for manufacturers, general contractors or installation companies, you'll almost always be ...
Oct 19, 2026
Shelving in 200+ petrol stations: logistics first
In short When you install shelving in series across petrol stations, most of the work isn't the installation. It's the logistics beforehand. For each station you have to ...
Oct 19, 2026
Invoicing as an installation subcontractor in Germany (§ 13b)
In short As an installation subcontractor in Germany, your invoice has to include the mandatory details under § 14 UStG (the German VAT Act): full addresses, tax number, ...
Oct 19, 2026
Shop-in-shop installation: how it works
In short A shop-in-shop is a brand's space inside someone else's store: a department store, a supermarket, a specialist retailer, a petrol station. The work usually ...
Oct 19, 2026
Installation company in Germany: what makes an installation work
In short A store fit-out installation works because of what the team does on site, and because of everything that was agreed beforehand. Six things need settling between ...
Oct 19, 2026
Installing in France: what manufacturers need to know
In short When a manufacturer from abroad has fixtures installed in France, the problem is rarely skill. It's distance. France has its own way of running a site, dates ...
Oct 19, 2026
Planning a store roll-out installation in Germany
In short When you plan a store roll-out installation in Germany, leave room in the schedule. Across a series of dozens of stores, something will always go wrong at some ...
Oct 19, 2026
Site not ready? Clarify first, decide on site
In our line of work there are two kinds of delay. On a large one-off project, we arrive and the other trades haven't finished. On a roll-out, the sites are small, but ...
Sep 14, 2026
A store roll-out in practice: 50 stores in two years
In short On a store roll-out, the number of fitters matters less than how well you've planned for things going wrong. Across a long series there will be late material, a ...
Sep 14, 2026