A main contractor holds the whole fit-out scope under one contract and subcontracts what they choose. Under a package arrangement, the client (or a fit-out manager) holds several trade contracts directly. The difference is who carries the interface risk between trades.
One tender sum, one programme, one snag list, one defects-liability period. The contractor carries the interface risk. Simplest to administer, and the route most brands and mall operators prefer.
The contractor takes the concept or brand manual and carries the detailed design as well as the construction. Fewer parties, one point of responsibility for buildability, and the design risk sits with the builder.
The main contractor holds the trade contracts. The client sees one price but retains visibility of the package structure — useful when one specialist is nominated by the brand.
The client holds each trade contract and appoints a manager to sequence them. Lowest headline cost, highest administrative load, and the interface risk stays with the client.
A specialist fabricates and installs a defined element — shopfront, signage, steelwork, joinery — inside someone else's programme. Clean scope, provided the interfaces are drawn.
The headline sum is usually higher, because the main contractor prices the risk of the interfaces. Whether the finished project costs more depends on how many of those interfaces would otherwise have become your variations.
The cost and delay that arise where two trades meet — the ceiling that cannot close because the ducting moved, the shopfront that cannot be glazed because the floor level changed. Someone carries it. Under a main contract, that is the contractor.
On large or repeated works with an experienced in-house team, where the client has both the staff to sequence trades and the appetite to absorb the delay when one of them is late.
Only if the trades are directly employed. Ask for headcount by trade and workshop area rather than the claim — a contractor who re-lets everything on award has simply moved the interface risk one layer down.
The main contractor, for the whole scope, against one joint snag list. Under separate trade packages there is a snag list per package, and the disputes between them land with the client.
We bid retail and commercial fit-out tenders across the Gulf from our Jeddah base.
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