Design consultancy Harrison expands with new US office

SUTTON Coldfield international hospitality design consultancy, Harrison, is expanding by opening an office in the United States.

Located near to the restaurant headquarters of Dallas in Carrollton, Texas, the office will help to service the growing number of projects it is spearheading across North America.

The operation will be headed up jointly by long-serving Harrison director Keith Anderson and the consultancy’s managing director and founder, Philip Harrison.  

Major Harrison projects currently under way in the US include the roll-out of an updated international design for T.G.I. Friday’s parent company, Carlson Restaurants, which has spent the last three years working with Harrison on a new global design strategy and guidelines.  

Work is currently being carried out on over 30 sites across the US, including Nashville (below), Boston, Seaworld in Orlando and Brooklyn, New York.
 
Further US projects include the North American pilot site development for chicken restaurant chain Nando’s in Washington DC.

“The North American market offers tremendous potential for a consultancy like Harrison, which has broad-ranging international experience and the capability to inject the formulaic US restaurant market with fresh, invigorating designs,” said Anderson.

“Our longstanding relationship with T.G.I. Friday’s in both the UK and the US is an excellent demonstration of our ability to understand what motivates consumers in disparate markets, and then translate the expectations of both customer and client into durable and profitable hospitality venues.”

Harrison’s expansion into the US come on the back of a major move into Europe and the Middle East, which currently sees the consultancy working in France, Russia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar for clients such as YO! Sushi, Rosinter, Nando’s, Giraffe and Food Fund.

The company has also expanded significantly in the UK over the last five years and now employs more than 30 design specialists, working on brands such as Pizza Hut, Nando’s, T.G.I. Friday’s, Giraffe, Bella Italia, Strada, Browns and YO! Sushi.  

One of the projects undertaken by Harrison in Nashville The business is also growing its portfolio of innovative one-off projects for individual entrepreneurs, the latest of which is a 40-bed boutique hotel in central London.

“Despite the testing economic conditions, Harrison is making great in-roads into the international leisure design sector, and this is a strategy we fully intend to continue,” said Philip Harrison.

“Plans for the immediate future include the expansion of our international workforce as well as the development of strategic consultancy partnerships both here in the UK and overseas.”

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