About
In September 2025, Inditex , the Spanish multinational clothing company and the world’s largest fashion retail group, embarked upon transforming their flagship store and head office in a two-phase project for their leading brand Zara on London’s Oxford Street, one of the world’s busiest shopping and retail locations.
Saxon Safety supported Inditex, and their construction arm Goa Invest, to deliver the strip out and refit of their premier UK location.
With major structural alterations, elevator and escalator installations façade and glazing replacements across this multi-level building on one of the country’s busiest streets, and with up to 100 personnel on site and a tight programme, this project presented many challenges to ensure the project was delivered both safely and on time.
What We Did
Saxon Safety provided ongoing Client and Principal Contractor H&S and CDM support throughout the project, including:
- Attendance at the project pre-start meeting and the subsequent development of the Construction Phase Plan and associated RAMS for the Principal Contactor. This included the printing and delivery of the full site folder package ready for the first day on site with all relevant paperwork and forms included so the site could be managed to comply with CDM Regulations 2015.
- Bi-weekly site safety audits comprising 70 inspections using both Saxon Safety’s Principal Contractor Site Inspection report and the client’s own site inspection system.
- Attendance of on-site project delivery and H&S meetings. This included, for example, the coordination meeting and subsequent development of the logistics and H&S plan between the construction team and workers of the soon to be opened store who stocked the store towards the end of the project whilst there were still construction works taking place.
- Ad-hoc advice where we were on hand to answer and advise the Client’s, Principal Contractor’s, Subcontractors’ and any other stakeholders’ questions and concerns throughout the project.
Challenges
- Working on one of the world’s busiest shopping streets, ensuring the public was not affected by the works, along with the logistics of the safe delivery and removal of materials.
- The number of people on site working to a tight programme, with many different trades required to coordinate works so that safety throughout the project was not compromised, alongside structural alterations still being completed whilst fit out works were also taking place.
- The Principal Contractor, Goa Invest, are a Spanish company who employ Spanish workers and subcontractors, therefore the language barrier and the cultural differences with regards to health and safety were a challenge. We worked diligently with the project delivery team and individual subcontractors to ensure health and safety was maintained and compliant with British law throughout the project.
Outcome
The project was successfully delivered, ready for the grand opening on the 4th of June, following the renovation and expansion of the store and head offices.
Spanning more than 48,000 sq ft across six floors, it is the only central London store to bring together Zara‘s women’s, men’s and children’s wear collections under one roof.
