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Styles & Wood was a surprise hit went it went public in November last year. Initially, the surprise was that a fit-out contractor had gone for plc status at all, but that was eclipsed by the enthusiastic response it received from the stock exchange: its shares were two-and-a-half times oversubscribed, and their price went up 15% on the first day.

This reception reflected institutional investors鈥� confidence in a company that had enjoyed 12 years of uninterrupted growth, had a forward order book worth 拢681m and a string of devoted high-street clients that included Tesco, Sainsbury鈥檚, Marks & Spencer, Barclays and John Lewis. At the time of going to press, its shares had risen from their starting price of 150p to reach 184p.

In 2007, Styles & Wood hopes to hit the acquisition trail with the 拢16m it made from the initial public offering. It wants to bolster its fast-growing support services business with design or facilities management firms. The plan is to move towards a fee-based consultancy model 鈥� another unusual step for a shopfitter.

鈥淯ltimately we want to offer a turnkey solution to the retailer,鈥� says Ivan McKeever, service development director. 鈥淭hey want more from the supply base 鈥� not just fit-out 鈥� but the market is really poorly serviced. Our consultancy offer is the thinking part added to the doing part.鈥�

In just five years, Styles & Wood鈥檚 three support services businesses have grown to achieve a combined turnover of 拢20m and they now contribute a quarter of the group鈥檚 profits. StorePlanning replaces the work done by architects, StoreCare replaces the maintenance duties supplied by facilities management firms and StoreData provides the technology to manage vast portfolios of stores.

There鈥檚 a marketplace of 50-100 retailers and we鈥檙e trading with 30 of them

Ivan McKeever

McKeever says it will cross-sell support services to existing clients. More than 90% of Styles & Wood鈥檚 work is repeat business 鈥� retail isn鈥檛 a huge marketplace, so it must maintain customer loyalty. 鈥淥ur business has been deliberately focused on the top-end retail players 鈥� those with the largest portfolio or the heaviest investors,鈥� says McKeever. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a marketplace of, say, 50-100 retailers that you鈥檇 want to do business with and we鈥檙e trading with 30 of them.鈥�

The fastest growing stream is StoreCare, which helps retailers manage instore marketing initiatives 鈥� a significant gap in the market. 鈥淚t hits that middle market between FM and large fit-out,鈥� says McKeever. 鈥淚t might not sound sexy but it鈥檚 an important part of what the retailer does. Everyone will get a story from the big jobs but I don鈥檛 think the industry has recognised this kind of activity yet and it鈥檚 really starting to take shape and grow fast 鈥� the numbers speak for themselves.鈥�

Barclays and Tesco were the first customers to sign up for all four services, but Steve Wilton, the support services director, says other firms are now catching on. 鈥淲e were at market two years before anyone else. Now that retailers have got their heads around frameworks for things like minor works and architecture services, they come to us because we brought the idea to them. It鈥檚 brought a bigger scale for contract wins.鈥�

Revenues on the high street might be down but this is exactly what puts Styles & Wood in such a strong position, says McKeever. 鈥淲hen consumer spending was taking a dip in 2003/04, retailers wanted to get the cost out of their operations so they turned to property teams and either constrained the number of staff or restructured. But the work those people did had to go somewhere and we were well placed because we could offer the design, the project management, the maintenance and minor works management.鈥�