There are two kinds of delay in our business. On a larger single project, we arrive and the preceding trades are not finished. On a roll-out, the sites are small, but the same small mistakes repeat at every one of them. Both cost money and nerves, and you deal with them differently.
What they share: you can think most of it through in advance, but you cannot rule everything out. When it happens, it matters less who the best craftsman is and more whether the team on site decides quickly and pragmatically — for the client, for the store and for us.
An example from our own work. A flagship store in Brittany, France. A good plan, a well-prepared installation. We drive there, about 1,500 kilometres from home. On site, the store is not ready — not ready enough for our installation to start.
Then you stand there with your crew and have two options. Wait, three or four days perhaps, without anyone able to tell you whether that estimate is right. Or drive back, with everything that costs in travel and lost follow-on dates.
We found a third. It depended on being able to sort things out on site, in French, with the store operator: where can we work in parallel, which areas will the interior fit-out release, in what order, who decides on site. The project was finished. It caused extra cost and pushed a follow-on project back — but it got done.
For an international client planning an installation in Germany, this story has a simple flip side. In Brittany, our advantage was speaking the language of the site. In Germany, that is what we bring to you: a German crew that talks to the German site manager, the German electrician and the German store operator in their language — while you get the outcome in English.
What you learn from the case is not spectacular. Whether a site is ready for installation is not something we know in advance. We have no contact with the operator of the space and do not inspect the site ourselves; that is not our role, and our clients — fit-out companies and manufacturers — do not want it any other way. What we can do is ask the question in time: one week before the start, we ask the client whether the preceding trades will be finished on day one — binding, with the question of what will be done by Monday and who guarantees it.
Not every situation of this kind can be avoided. People on construction sites are optimists; they have a schedule they want to keep, and then a trade does not show up. We see that constantly, and we plan for it. But some of it can be ruled out, and when it happens anyway, the best possible solution has to be found on site. That is standard for us, nothing exceptional.
What we clear with the client before larger single projects:
On a roll-out across many sites, a single trade is rarely the problem. It is the small things, and they come back. What we see all the time: nobody on site knows where the material was delivered. Parts are missing. Nobody knows who signs the handover. The drawing is wrong because the survey was wrong, or because the space has changed since and nobody thought to tell the fit-out company. At one site that costs half an hour. Across a whole roll-out it adds up to days.
That is why we go through a fixed list with the client before every deployment; internally we call it the day-before check. We do not ask the store — the client confirms the points to us:
For international clients we run this check in English, on one page, the day before. It takes ten minutes and removes most of the reasons a night shift in a German store goes sideways.
Add to that our rule for every roll-out plan: never plan to the edge, about 20 % buffer everywhere. The teams are not slow, but the list above never comes back 100 % green. A plan without buffer tips over at the first deviation, and across many sites the deviation is certain.
Think through in advance what can be thought through: on the single project, the question to the client about the preceding trades; on the roll-out, the short day-before list the client confirms. Then stay flexible on site and decide — fast, pragmatic, cost-aware, so that in the end everyone is satisfied. That is where success comes from. Success, for us, means the project gets delivered despite the obstacles. That is how we define it.
Do you inspect the site before the installation? No — we are not on site before the crew arrives, and our clients do not want us there. What we do is ask the client, in writing and one week ahead, whether the preceding trades will be finished and who guarantees it.
What happens if the crew arrives and the site is not ready? We decide on site: work in parallel where areas are released, re-sequence, or stop. Waiting time and aborted trips are charged to the client; that is stated in our quotation.
Can you run the day-before check in English? Yes. It is a one-page list your project lead confirms the day before the shift; we handle the German side of it.
Does this apply to night shifts in open stores? Especially there. Access, alarm and a reachable decision-maker at night are the points that fail most often.
Manuel Emig, Emig Ladenbau GmbH — retail installation partner, Wald-Michelbach, Germany. Own installers plus a coordinated partner network, on site in Germany, France and across Europe since 2004. Based on our project practice; last reviewed September 2026.