Eat beautiful. Brand beautiful. Jan 23, 2017| Kunden Helping itsu to create an open and collaborative office space which reflects the look and feel of their stores Inspired by the flavours of the Far East, the first itsu began serving nutritious food in Chelsea in 1997 and now has over 70 shops. itsu is recognised for stunning store design and a modern approach to food retailing, as well as its forward-thinking approach to customer satisfaction and employee development. Jo Davis, Group People Director explained “If you walk into one of our shops you instantly feel what itsu is all about. Beautiful food, an amazing ambience and a passionate team who love our customers. People genuinely love working together at itsu, it’s one big family where people genuinely care”. Growth, which shows no sign of stopping, has been quick for itsu. So much so, that at the beginning of 2016 they needed to relocate their head office as their previous space had become cramped and inflexible. A site in Holborn, central London was found and Jo and the project team set about creating their ideal working environment. itsu approached Bisley with a brief to create an open and collaborative office space which reflected the look and feel of their stores. The space had to accommodate all head office teams such as marketing, HR, property and IT as well as a test kitchen and a recruitment and training academy. Bisley responded with a full design service; from the initial mood boards and project ideas through to design, product specification, CAD floor plans, 3D visualisation renders, installation and project management, including procurement and co-ordination of 3rd party products. To help itsu create an agile space to accommodate its growing team, Bisley supplied its flexible ‘Be’ bench desking, with storage to divide the space, desk screens, task seating and lockers for personal storage. For informal meetings or individual working, high tables and stools also from the ‘Be’ range, were provided, alongside complementary soft seating. Numerous parts of the solution were bespoke designs to maximise the use of space. The meeting room tables were customised to specific dimensions to increase the capacity of the rooms and the work benches included a customised leg detail to increase the usable length. What really bought the whole space together though was colour. Bisley matched the itsu brand colour palette on all its products; the instantly recognisable grey and pink can be seen everywhere from seat pad to cushions to desk screens to mobile storage. The open compartments on their tall white lockers were accented with pink as were the desktop power units and the AV ports in the middle of meeting room tables. The new head office now feels like an extension to the shops, helping all employees to feel part of the same itsu family. Jo concluded “We wanted our new head office to reflect our brand and by choosing their products we did that in style. From colour-matching our brand palette to sourcing complementary products, Bisley helped us create a comfortable, eye-catching and functional workspace."
