| Tú Projects

Tú Projects |

A businesstoLOVE

| Tú Projects

Tú Projects |

FRIENDLY, STRONG, HONEST CULTURE

Tú Projects provides a shop fitting ser-vice with a difference, and that difference is illustrated by their name. Tú means ‘you’ in Spanish, and that’s exactly what Tú Proj-ects focuses on. Since forming in 2004, that customer-centric philosophy has helped the company earn the loyalty of customers, win awards, and develop an unrivalled portfolio of literally hundreds of high profile projects throughout Australia. Over the years, Tú Projects has complet-ed projects in all environments – from high street, to shopping centres, to airports, sta-

diums, and more. In that time, they have be-come well known for delivery high quality results “on budget, on time, every time.” Rob Rowe is the founder and Managing Director of Tú Projects. He says that as the company’s reputation has grown, so has their size and scope. In 2005, he recalls making a plan to reach $65 million in turnover in 10 years. He achieved that goal in eight years, and hasn’t slowed down since. With the sup-port of his skilled and dedicated team – as well as custom tendering and project man-agement software– he has continued to grow

| Tú Projects

Tú Projects |

the business by 46 per cent between 2013 and 2014, and by 56 per cent between 2014 and 2015. “This year, as a group of companies, we’ll build about 350 fitouts,” Mr. Rowe says. “We open up a shop, a restaurant, a café, a medical facility, or an office almost every day.”

Mr. Rowe credits Tú Projects’ extraordi-nary growth to their history of “uncompro-mised service.” Over the years, he says they have made sure the customer gets whatever they need, even if they don’t yet know they need it.

“We always make sure what we do aligns with the client’s requirements,” Mr. Rowe explains.“We don’t have a one-size fits all ap-proach. As a company, we’re very diverse and very flexible. We’re like a chameleon – we can be whatever the client needs us to be.” For example, Tú Projects can provide a complete beginning-to-end “design, build, and maintain service.” They can coordi-nate all aspects of a fitout from concept to completion – everything from design pro-duction, to management of tendering and quotations, to value engineering, procure-ment, installation, quality assurance, author-ity submissions, and everything before, after,

A TRUE PARTNER

| Tú Projects

and in between. “Or we can just design-only, build-only, or even just maintain,” Mr. Rowe clarifies. “We can do whatever the client wants.” That flexibility is one of Tú Projects’ main points of difference. Another point of differ-ence is the way they haveembraced technol-ogy. “We’ve spent millions of dollars on soft-ware and we have our own software team,” Mr. Rowe says.“We’ve developed tendering and project management systems, and we have a suite of apps that are available on the

Google Play and Apple App stores. We’ve developed these systems when no one else in our industry has.” Tú Projects is also part of a larger group called Unita, which Mr. Rowe formed in 2012 as a means of bringing all companies in the group under one support banner. Unita includes a joinery manufacturing business, a stainless steel fabrication business, a signage business, other design businesses, and more. The collective expertise and experience of these units is then leveraged in order to offer clients guidance and advice on how to maxi-

Tú Projects |

mise their potential. “We’re willing to engage with the custom-er as a true partner and help them achieve the most out of their business,” Mr. Rowe ex-plains. “I really don’t think building a shop to an A+ standard is enough differentiation between us and everyone else. We want cus-tomers to come to us and grow as a business because of it.” “We have a lot of people in our organisa-tion who are industry leaders, and we draw upon those people to provide customers with the best level of service possible. We

help them have the most successful business possible,” he adds. “In 11 years, we’ve built thousands of shops, and we’ve never had a customer go bankrupt. That says a lot.” As a result of their exceptional level of service and partnership,Tú Projects earns the vast majority of their work through repeat business and word of mouth. “We want to grow together with our cli-ents, and we’ve worked with many of the same clients for years,” Mr. Rowe says.“We’re the first to know when they’re looking to open their next location because they trust

AWARD RECOGNISED

CUSTOMISED SOLUTIONS

| Tú Projects

we’ll provide a memorable experience again.”

Tú Projects is a proud member of the Aus-tralian Shop and Office Fitting Industry As-sociation (ASOFIA) – which is the leading national voice for the fitout industry. ASO-FIA encourages members to achieve the highest standards of workmanship and cus-tomer service, and they celebrate the mem-bers that live up to those standards with their biennial and nationally-recognised Interior Fitout Awards.

At the 2014 / 2015 Interior Fitout Awards, Tú Projects received two awards for both hospitality and retail. The award-win-ning projects were the Nantucket Kitchen & Bar and Sambag Macquarie Centre, both of which represented the high quality and at-tention to detail that Tú Projects has become known for. Both projects also received contributions from every business within the Unita group of companies, according to Mr. Rowe. “What that says is ‘We can do it all,’” he ex-plains. “We can design you a business model,

AWARD RECOGNISED

Tú Projects |

we can design you a brand, come up with the uniforms, find you a site, design you a shop, build it, and maintain it – and we can do it all to award-worthy standards.” “In the past, we’ve won awards where we’ve done 75 per cent of the work and 25 per cent was done by contractors,” he adds. “I’ve never felt completely satisfied with that. But we’re at a point now where we can control every detail. It makes us very proud that we can put all those pieces together and win awards and be recognised for it.” At the 2014 / 2015 Interior Fitout Awards,

Sambag’s Macquarie Centre store won the accolade for best Interior Fitout within the $150,000 to $300,000 category. Mr. Rowe says Tú Projects’ work there reflects the high quality and luxury nature of the brand, and reflects the typically close working relation-ship they have with founder Sam Wagner. “She’s an Australian fashion designer and small business owner, she’s got a great vision, and she wants to go to great places,” Mr. Rowe says. “When we met her, she’d never had a great experience with a designer or a builder. But we’ve had a very supportive and

STRIVING TO BE THE BEST

| Tú Projects

collaborative relationship, and we’re very proud of the award not just for ourselves, but for her. We know she is proud of it as well.” The award-winning store itself features the Sambag brand’s signature pastel blue and white façade. The interior also showcases the brand’s commitment to “modern, stylish de-sign,” with exposed wood panelling, beauti-ful overhead lighting, plush ottomans, and innovative storage spaces. It all combines to create a “welcoming setting, thoroughly de-serving of recognition.” Nantucket Kitchen & Bar, meanwhile,

took out the award for best Interior Food / Restaurant within the $1 million to $2.5 million category. That project was “inspired by the wonders of Cape Cod,” and was “an ode to the relaxed, casual coastal style en-joyed there.” The clients for that project were Kim and TJ Peabody, who had a vision to create a unique dining destination in the Western suburbs of Brisbane. Mr. Rowe and his team worked closely with the couple, transform-ing their dream into a reality. Mr. Rowe reiterates that all organisations

Tú Projects |

within the Unita group performed on the project. They helped develop the up-front concept and business plan as well as site-sourcing, designed the brand and the inte-riors, completed the joinery, provided the kitchen equipment, custom refrigeration and stainless steel, and Tú Projects managed the fit-out. According to Mr. Rowe, each element of the restaurant was “carefully chosen and con-structed to create a holistic vision but with a homely feel.” The white walls and dark timber floors, for instance, are typical to Cape Cod designs and “combine a natural finish with a clean-ness that is reassuring.” The layout, mean-while, is “expansive and inviting” with an island bar, open kitchen and several dining areas including a casual one, a formal one, and even a terrace. There is also a private din-ing room with full conference facilities for business that can also service comfortable social functions. Nantucket Kitchen & Bar also features one-of-a-kind kitchen equipment and fix-tures sourced from Italy, USA, and Asia – including a one piece, 1.6 tonne, 7-metre Cookline that had to be installed just a week before handover. Other features of the restaurant included

extensive use of hand-finished detailed join-ery panelling, marble bench tops, dining room tables, and a large custom made refrig-erated wine display which is the centrepiece of the bar area. According to Mr. Rowe, the project was “extremely challenging” for a variety of rea-sons. It was also “extremely unique and re-warding,” however, and the clients were highly pleased with the results. “They saw what we did as very powerful,” Mr. Rowe says. “Because we didn’t just build a shop, we built a business. That includes designing the website, for example. We also designed really cool and unique kids menus that were on viewfinders – something that had never been done before in Australia. We spent a lot of time and effort on that project, and we designed and built everything with a lot of love.”

Moving forward, Mr. Rowe says Tú Proj-ects will continue to deliver award-worthy projects for satisfied clients. He also says the company will continue down their path of massive growth.By 2020, he aims to further vertically integrate the company by offering more services to clients. He also hopes to grow the annual turnover to somewhere be-

2020 VISION

| Tú Projects

tween $200 and $300 million,and establish a physical presence in New Zealand, the UK, and Hong Kong. As the business achieves this growth, however, Mr. Rowe also aims to remain per-sonal and customer-centric, and maintain “a small business feeling.” That balance, he says, will continue to make Tú Projects special. “Recently, we had an event where we brought the whole business together and we discussed the past, the present, and the fu-ture,” he says.“That really got everyone en-gaged with where we’re going. Every month, we also host a get-together for our staff where we have two awards – the Employee of the Month Awards, and the SPIRIT Awards.”SPIRIT is the motto of the business, Mr. Rowe explains. It means Supportive, Posi-tive, Inspirational, Respectful, Innovative, and Teamwork – all of which are values that Tú Projects holds dear. “We have a really strong culture, and it’s constantly getting better,” Mr. Rowe says. “Right now, I wouldn’t say we’re the best business in Australia from a culture and training perspective, but that’s my goal. I want to be seen as the business that people walk into and walk out loving – or that peo-ple walk into and never want to leave.” “We want to be a business that people

love to work for, and love to work with,” he concludes.

2020 VISION

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