A BUSINESS which transforms the appearance of the growing number of empty shops on Britain’s streets is now winning work around the world.

Tyneside-based Shopjacket has built up an international profile since it opened 18 months ago and has just shipped some of its three-dimensional store fronts to Holland as it wins more overseas business.

The brainchild of property consultant Paul Murphy and designer Jo Atkinson, the firm supplies bespoke printed panels to create the illusion of shops typically for local authority or shopping centre clients.

At the weekend, clients from Holland returned home with five Shopjackets as their hand luggage on the ferry from the Tyne.

Murphy, who runs the business in a part time capacity with Atkinson, said: “It is starting to take over our lives. We’ve done quotes in Hungary, we talking to people in Belgium and the US. We have done Shopjackets from Jersey up to Fort William.”

He initially came up with the idea while working as a retail consultant and has a number of initiatives to further expand the business in the New Year.

Shopjacket considers the visual transformation to be just the first step in a series of measures to improve an area.

It also works with landlords, tenants and local authorities to offer advice on using their existing resources to attract more shoppers.

Murphy is now in talks with a fashion business to create QR codes on the shop frontages, which people can scan with their mobile phones and then order the goods online.

More immediately, he wants to use the concept as an educational tool to tackle the crisis in Britain’s high streets. He believes many of the recommendations in last week’s report on the issue, produced for the Government by retail expert and TV presenter Mary Portas, will make little difference.

Instead, Murphy plans to work with students to help them develop ideas to open shops and breathe new life into their local high streets.

“There is a massive gap in the education system,” he said. “We are starting to work with schools in North Tyneside. We are putting together a transportable mini Shopjacket village for lessons. This will be the next big thing, getting kids into retail.”

And Shopjacket will also be involved in a joint venture in 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Where’s Wally? character. It will create a series of 3D Where’s Wally pictures on shop frontages .