Otley Tech Firm Apollo3D Maps B&M Store of the Future

The growing Yorkshire 3D-mapping specialist has delivered a digital twin for discount giant B&M, adding another blue-chip name to its client list

A growing Yorkshire technology firm has landed another major retail client, creating a detailed digital twin for discount giant B&M. Apollo3D, the Otley-based 3D-mapping specialist, scanned B&M’s flagship Wigan store to produce a virtual replica that the retailer used to plan a seven-phase refit; testing layouts, signage and even floor colours before any physical work began. B&M says the approach will now guide refurbishments and new store openings across its estate of more than 790 shops. For a 12-strong Yorkshire firm, winning work of this profile is a notable marker of growth.

Why This Matters For Leeds

Apollo3D is building a client list most firms its size could only dream of, whilst keeping its expertise and jobs based in Otley. Its growth also reflects a genuine shift in how businesses manage their buildings, using a single digital scan again and again for design, training and planning. For the Leeds area’s tech economy, a home-grown specialist scaling up on blue-chip work is a welcome sign of the region’s depth of talent.

What Apollo3D Built for B&M

Brought in earlier this year, the firm scanned the 55,000 sq ft Wigan store, including its garden centre and back-of-house areas, to create a full 3D digital twin, complete with a drone fly-through. That gave B&M’s design team a way to trial changes virtually and the store stayed open throughout the rebuild because teams could work from the model rather than closing sections to take measurements. The retailer has since used the scan well beyond the build itself, showing before-and-after walkthroughs to staff at its annual conference, using VR headsets to preview the finished store, and adapting a version for customers to explore online. B&M chief executive Tjeerd Jegen called it a genuinely groundbreaking way to plan stores, with every design decision grounded in how customers actually move through the space rather than a floor plan on paper.

“The businesses that get the most out of this technology are the ones that keep coming back to the model, long after the initial scan — for design, for training, for marketing, and now as a template for future stores.”

— Mark Shepherd, Managing Director and Founder, Apollo3D

A Growing Yorkshire Specialist

Founded in 2017 by Mark Shepherd and based at Wharfebank Mills in Otley, the company has grown into one of the UK’s leading independent digital-twin and 3D-mapping firms, delivering thousands of virtual tours. Its client list spans retail, healthcare, hospitality and the public sector, and includes Primark, for whom it mapped more than 350 stores across Europe to support an LED lighting upgrade, along with Marks & Spencer, Greene King, OCS and the NHS. The firm recently secured a £100,000 loan through the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme to fund a recruitment drive, and has been named a customer-service winner at the Yorkshire Choice Awards. The B&M project is the kind of marquee win that marks Apollo3D out as a Yorkshire tech business on the rise.