Industry Insight

Expanding your hospitality brand to Europe

The brand travels. The planning code does not. What changes when a UK or Italian hospitality brand opens in Spain, France or Italy.

Alessio Giorgetti, director of re:SPACE, turnkey fit-out company in London
· 7 min read
Pink banquette seating and framed prints in the Badiani gelato shop, Eixample, Barcelona

One standard, four codes

A rollout succeeds when every site feels like the same brand. That is a design problem. Getting each site open is a regulatory one — and the rules differ in each country, and often in each city.

Spain: activity licences and conservation areas

In Barcelona, Badiani’s first Spanish gelato laboratory needed a single activity licence covering both wholesale production and retail, alongside consents for the Eixample Conservation Area. Applying for both uses at once avoided a second process later.

France: turnkey delivery in a landmark venue

At the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, within the Louvre complex, we delivered a 750 sq ft hospitality unit covering planning, project management, design and build, and licensing and compliance. The landlord’s own approvals sat alongside French planning and licensing requirements, and aligning them before trades arrived is what kept the unit on programme.

Italy: historic centres and change of use

Florence’s historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where a change of use is tightly controlled. On Via de’ Tosinghi we managed the change of use, licensing and build as one package.

Glazed red gelato shop frontage inside the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
Case study referencedCarrousel du Louvre →750 sq ft inside the Louvre complex.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Q1

How do I open a restaurant in Spain as a UK brand?

You will need the right activity licence for the premises, local planning consents and, in protected areas, heritage approvals. Requirements vary by city. Working with a contractor that knows the local code — and can run licensing alongside the fit-out — shortens the route to opening.

Q2

Can one contractor deliver fit-outs in several European countries?

Yes. re:SPACE delivers across the UK, Spain, France and Italy, with projects including Badiani in Barcelona, the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris and Via de’ Tosinghi in Florence. One contractor keeps the brand standard consistent while local codes are handled site by site.

Q3

What is the hardest part of a cross-border rollout?

Usually the regulatory sequence, not the build. Each country has different consent types, timescales and authorities. Planning those early, and in parallel with design, is what keeps multiple openings on the same programme. Our Planning and Licensing team works with in-depth knowledge of local codes and regulations in the UK, Italy, Spain and France.

Q4

Do you work with El Corte Inglés?

We have delivered design and build, project management and rigging across multiple El Corte Inglés sites in Spain, including Málaga, as part of cross-border retail expansion work. That work sits alongside retail installations for Westfield in London and Barcelona, and our Spanish sites also include Madrid, Sotogrande and Palamós.

Next articleThe complete guide to hospitality fit-out