Fit-Out Company Profit Margins in the UK
The short answer
A fit-out contractor earns on package margins and the preliminaries that run the job. Most lose money guessing prelims as a percentage — price them from the programme instead.
- Price from the programme, not a percentage. Prelims are weeks × people and kit. In our example, real prelims were £15,400 against a 5% guess of £4,800.
- Every package gets a sub price. Partitions and ceilings, M&E, flooring, joinery, decoration, glazing: two or three quotes each, then your margin on top.
- Know the job and the building. Cat A and Cat B are different jobs, and landlord licences, building rules, out-of-hours work and CDM all cost time.
- Proof wins fit-out work. Commercial clients buy from firms with finished projects they can see.
Fit-out is where many builders want to go next: bigger tickets, commercial clients, repeat work. It is also where a lot of them lose their first big job. A fit-out is mostly other people's work, held together by your preliminaries and your programme.
This guide is for owners of UK fit-out companies, and builders moving into office and retail fit-out. It shows how to protect your fit-out company profit margin. The price must pay for every package and the people who run the job. If you want us to look at your last fit-out price, book a free strategy call.
Where fit-out contractors make and lose money
A fit-out contractor rarely does most of the work with their own hands. You earn on:
- Margin on packages Partitions, ceilings, M&E, flooring, joinery, decoration, glazing
- Preliminaries Site management, welfare, protection, waste, access and logistics
- Design fees on design-and-build jobs
And you lose it on:
- Prelims guessed as a percentage instead of priced from the programme
- Out-of-hours work that the building's rules demand and you absorb
- Starting before the landlord's licence is signed, then stopping and waiting
- Cat A rework nobody priced when the tenant's layout changes the ceilings and services
- Design changes accepted on site without a price
Price package by package
Break the drawings and specification into packages. For each one, get two or three subcontract prices against the same scope. Level them (same inclusions, same exclusions), and pick the one you trust to deliver.
Your own team's work gets the same treatment: measured, costed from your outputs, priced as a package.
Then add your margin on the total. Your margin floor is overheads as a % of turnover plus the net profit you want.
Still pricing fit-outs that leave nothing at the end?
Book a free call with our team. We'll look at your prelims, your packages and your pipeline, and what to fix first.
Cost the prelims from the programme
Prelims are the cost of running the job. They depend on how many weeks it takes, not on the value of the packages.
Worked example: 400 m² Cat B office fit-out, 8 weeks, design and build (example figures)
| Line | Basis | £ |
|---|---|---|
| Subcontract and own packages | levelled sub prices | 96,000 |
| Site manager | £1,100/week × 8 weeks | 8,800 |
| Welfare, protection, waste | 8 weeks | 4,200 |
| Out-of-hours premium | noisy works after 6 pm | 2,400 |
| Design fees | layouts, M&E design | 3,600 |
| Direct cost | 115,000 | |
| Price at a 20% floor (÷ 0.80) | 143,750 |
The real prelims here are £15,400. Guess them as "5% of packages" and you allow £4,800. That is £10,600 of cost, about £13,250 of price, missing before the first partition goes up.
Write the programme first, then price. If you cannot say how many weeks the job takes and who runs it each week, you cannot price the prelims.
Want your fit-out prelims and packages priced from a real programme?
Book a free strategy call.
Know what the building and the landlord demand
Fit-outs happen inside someone else's building. That shapes your price:
- Landlord's licence for alterations: works should not start until it is signed; build the wait into the programme
- Building management rules: working hours, noisy work windows, goods lift bookings, deliveries, permits
- Cat A vs Cat B: what the base build includes, and what the tenant's layout makes you rework
- Fire safety: alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors and fire-stopping around your new partitions
- Building control where the work affects means of escape or other regulated items
CDM duties apply to every commercial fit-out. If more than one contractor works on the project, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor. Some projects must be notified to the HSE. That means more than 30 working days with more than 20 workers at once, or more than 500 person-days.
Construction Project Leads Guide
Where to find commercial and fit-out projects before they reach tender.
Get the free guideControl changes and the client's decisions
Commercial clients change their minds: a meeting room moves, the kitchen grows, the finishes change after samples. Each change can affect three packages and the programme.
- Agree a decision schedule: dates by which layouts, finishes and equipment must be signed off
- Price every change across all the packages it touches, plus any extra weeks of prelims
- Get written approval before the work, and update the programme the same day
Pick the right contract for the job; see JCT Minor Works vs Intermediate vs Design and Build.
Win fit-out work at a price that pays
Commercial clients buy proof. Before you chase bigger fit-outs, get these ready:
- Finished projects you can show Photos, the brief, the programme, what you delivered
- A clear process Survey, design, programme, delivery, handover
- The paperwork clients ask for: insurance, health and safety, references
On accreditations, Sviat's own experience is blunt: he paid a lot for accreditations that never paid off. Get one only when a specific tender for a specific project asks for it. Most take 2–3 months. Never buy one in the hope that work will start pouring in.
Then go where fit-out projects start: agents, landlords, architects and interior designers. See how to move from residential to commercial work.
For a four-minute score of your pricing, cash, sales and systems, take the free Construction Business Scorecard.
Grow a fit-out company with a mentor who runs one
Sviat Jay runs Craftex, a London construction company that delivers commercial fit-outs, including a warehouse fit-out in central London for the fashion brand Drake's. Craftex produces its own construction programmes and holds CHAS, SafeContractor and three ISO accreditations.
He mentors owners one to one himself. There is no standard program for hundreds of firms: one owner is strong at sales, another at running sites. He finds those strengths and builds on them. BizMentor mentoring aims for results in about 4 months rather than 1–3-year programs.
Adam & Ali: stuck at £500K for 3 years, then a £528K project
After fixing pricing and sales, a £528K project at about 34% margin, in 4 months. Individual results, not typical or guaranteed.
If you want fit-out tenders priced and programmed for you, see our construction estimating services.
Want to win bigger fit-outs without pricing them at a loss? Book a free strategy call.
Before you send your next fit-out price
Regulatory points are general information for England as of October 2026. Check details with your health and safety adviser and building control.
Before you go
- Every package has levelled sub prices or a costed own-work price
- Prelims are priced from a written programme, week by week
- Landlord's licence, building rules and out-of-hours work are in the programme
- Cat A rework and design fees are priced
- A decision schedule and change process are in the contract
