01The lightbulb moment
MSO began over a drink in an Edinburgh hotel, on the way back from a client visit. We’d spent years watching retailers skip space optimisation altogether because the tools were too heavy, too expensive or didn’t fit the way they worked. The idea was simple: clustering, space and assortment in one place, built by people who did the job. It started as a spreadsheet. Then the spreadsheet got macros. Then more macros. By the time it was clustering stores, planning macro and micro space and producing an assortment out the back, it had outgrown Excel completely.
Reflowing ASDA's departments, estate-wide
02The evolution of the solution
When a major UK grocer went looking for a macro space analytics tool, we pitched the idea. It was still a spreadsheet. They bought it anyway, and backed the first proper version of MSO, built on Power Apps. That version turned an idea into a product, and it’s still in daily use. The next step was to take everything we’d learned and rebuild it as a true SaaS platform: cloud-based, scalable and ready for any retailer.
Waitrose's HFSS rework, done to deadline
03How services & software exist together
MSO was built by space planners who became a software company, not a software company trying to learn retail. Our services team works inside retailers every day, and what they learn goes straight into the product. The DNA of our retailer clients runs throughout MSO as it continues to develop; every new client makes the tool better. MSO isn’t what we think you might like; it’s what we know you need, because we’ve needed it ourselves.
Little Dobbies, planned from the first store
