Tech firm adds to basket with B&M 3D store work

A technology firm has added to its order book with a “groundbreaking” retail deal.

Apollo3D worked with discount operator B&M on a digital twin project.

Bosses say the venture has helped create “a blueprint for the retailer’s store of the future”.

The Otley-based company mapped out B&M’s Worthington Way outlet, in Wigan, which officials add will “be used to guide expansion and refurbishment projects” across the chain’s estate.

The firm scanned the 55,000sq ft store, combining a 3D digital twin with a drone flythrough of the site, which enabled B&M’s design team to test layout changes, signage and floor colours without closing the store or sections of its footprint to measure out upgrades.

B&M, which operates from more than 790 stores in the UK and France, says the project will “inform how future refurbishments and new store openings are planned, reducing the need for repeat site visits and giving teams a shared reference point from design through to construction”.

Mark Shepherd, founder and managing director of Apollo3D – which previously supported an LED lighting upgrade across more than 350 Primark stores – said: “The businesses that get the most out of our valuable technology are the ones that keep coming back to the model.

“For B&M, that means using it for design, training, marketing and now, as a template for how they approach future stores.”

Tjeerd Jegen, B&M chief executive, added: “This is a genuinely groundbreaking way for us to plan our stores.

“Having a store mapped out in this much detail, before any physical work begins, means every layout and design decision is grounded in how a real customer actually moves through the space.”

Founded nearly a decade ago, Apollo3D counts Marks & Spencer, Greene King, the NHS and OCS among its client base.

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