Good day to you All. A bit more about John Cope & Associates (JCA)... I currently operate out of Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, UK although most of my work is still in South Africa. I am primari…

Good day to you All.

A bit more about John Cope & Associates (JCA)...

I currently operate out of Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, UK although most of my work is still in South Africa. I am primarily a retail store design consultant although I also love doing restaurant, bar and hotel design projects too. When I was based in JHB I also worked with several commercial property developers on architectural design concepts for shopping centres - Epsom Downs, Grosvenor Crossing, Florida Junction, College Crossing, Tyger Manor etc were some of my original schemes. I would love to do more of this type of work again in the future.

I am currently working with 2 major SA national retailers and have done so for many years. I generate new store concept formats on an ongoing basis across the various sub-brands at store level. I also do a bit of work in Poland for Pepkor on a discount retail chain there. To be honest, without my South African clients, I would not have survived the last few years! The UK design market is quite fickle and one minute you are the flavour of the month and the next minute you are nowhere - very little loyalty or reward for giving exceptional service etc. Great service and delivery of top class design is paramount to me and only my SA clients seem to appreciate this.

For the past 5 years I have been exceptionally busy with the above, but now it seems that things are also slowing down in the SA retail market. I do network with other design-related professionals in JHB and CPT, but todate it has all been very one-sided with me providing the main impetus etc. I would like to extend my network and offer my experience and skills within the retail, hospitality and shopping centre design fields. I also want to branch into other parts of Africa and the Middle East markets. I look forward to some comments and ideas related to the above.

Regards,
John
John Cope and Associates