KOJ Interiors in Dubai: what the firm builds, and how to vet any fit-out contractor

Who KOJ Interiors is, and what the company actually builds

KOJ Interiors sells turnkey design and fit-out to commercial, hospitality and retail clients. It sits inside Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group, a Gulf retail group with brands across beauty, fashion, healthcare, food and beverage, and children's learning. That parentage explains more than a services page does. A fit-out business that grew up inside a retail group has spent years opening shop units against landlord deadlines and trading dates, which is a narrow and genuinely hard skill.

Founding dates disagree across public sources, so treat the number carefully. Design Middle East's Powerlist entry describes the interiors business as launched in 2018 and calls it one of the faster-growing fit-out firms in the GCC, while the group's own materials point to a longer history and date the Ras Al Khaimah production plant to 2004. Ask on the first call rather than reconstruct it from a website. The Dubai office is on the 17th floor of Festival Tower at Dubai Festival City, opened in September 2023 according to trade coverage at the time, and the firm was ranked fifth in Design Middle East's Fit-Out Powerlist 2024.

Per the company's own published figures, KOJ reports more than 300 completed projects, client retention around 85%, and certification to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. Those are company-published numbers, not an independent audit, and retention in particular is defined differently by every firm that quotes one. The certificates are the part you can verify yourself: ask for the certificate number and the certification body, then check it against that body's register before it appears in your tender file.

Commercial and hospitality, not homes

The sector line is the most useful thing on the company's profile. KOJ's published portfolio runs through retail units, food and beverage, hotel space and workplace interiors. Private residential does not appear, and that reads as deliberate positioning rather than an oversight.

The economics behind that choice are worth understanding, because they apply to every large fit-out firm in the city. A retail or hospitality client arrives with a brand standard, a fit-out manual issued by the mall, a bill of quantities and a trading date that costs money every day it slips. A villa client arrives with one family, a kitchen island that changes three times, and a reasonable expectation that a senior designer will walk the site on a Saturday. Different work, different staffing, different margin.

So if you landed here looking for someone to renovate an apartment in Marina or a villa in The Meadows, this is the wrong door, and nothing about KOJ's quality is in question. One practical filter for any large contractor: ask for the minimum contract value in the first two minutes of the call. Firms of this scale nearly always have one, and hearing it early saves a fortnight of polite email.

What the in-house factory actually changes

Manufacturing is the strongest thing in the KOJ story. KOJ reports a 120,000 sqft facility in the UAE, alongside a 100,000 sqft plant inside Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone described as its production hub for GCC projects.

Joinery is where fit-out programmes die. Shopfronts, counters, display walls and reception desks are the long-lead items on almost every commercial job, and when they are bought from an outside workshop, your handover date depends on somebody else's production queue and somebody else's measuring tape. Bringing that in-house shortens the queue and, more importantly, puts one company on the hook when a dimension comes back wrong.

A factory also creates fixed cost. Plant needs volume to feed it, which is another reason small residential jobs do not fit this model and never will. On a single apartment where the joinery amounts to two wardrobes and a kitchen, factory capacity built for twenty-unit rollouts buys you nothing and lowers no price.

The checklist that works on any Dubai fit-out contractor

Run this on KOJ, on us, on anyone. Seven items, in the order they cause damage.

1. 1. Licence and activity. Ask for the current Department of Economy and Tourism trade licence, still called DED across most systems and paperwork, with an activity that covers what they are actually selling you. Free zone firms hold a DMCC, DDA or DIFC licence instead, which is fine until a mainland building management refuses site access without a DET contracting licence. Check the licence against the public register, not against the PDF they sent you.
2. 2. The authority for your specific address. Dubai Municipality governs mainland and standard freehold districts, including Business Bay, through the Building Permit System. DDA covers the TECOM free zones: Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Knowledge Park and Dubai Design District. Trakhees covers Nakheel and Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation areas, including Palm Jumeirah, Jebel Ali and Dubai Maritime City. JLT goes through DMCC, and DIFC runs its own building control. A contractor who cannot name yours on the first call has not worked your building.
3. 3. Civil Defence. DCD approves fire alarm and sprinkler modifications, kitchen extract and anything that alters an escape route or sits above sprinkler heads. Ask who signs the submission, and confirm that the annual maintenance contract with a DCD-approved company is arranged before inspection, because the inspection will not close without it.
4. 4. A programme with the approvals inside it. On commercial work, budget six to ten weeks for the approvals chain before site mobilisation. A straightforward Dubai Municipality fit-out permit usually clears in five to fifteen working days once the file and drawings are genuinely complete, and DDA's AXS portal review can move faster once a compliant submission is accepted, though the total time to a stamped permit still depends on how clean that first submission is. Any programme that begins on day one at site is a sales document.
5. 5. Payment stages tied to verifiable milestones. A staged split across mobilisation, first fix, second fix, finishes and handover, something in the shape of 15 / 20 / 20 / 25 / 20, beats "50% to start" every time. Each stage should be written so a third party could confirm it happened.
6. 6. Retention and the defects liability period. Retention normally runs 5 to 10% of contract value, deducted from each interim payment rather than invoiced separately, and it needs a release date attached rather than the phrase "after the DLP". Twelve months from taking over is the market norm for fit-out and MEP works. Get the exclusions in writing. We set out both mechanics in detail in our guide to payment schedules and retention.
7. 7. Who holds MEP. Ask whether mechanical, electrical and plumbing sit with in-house staff or a subcontractor, who signs the Civil Defence submission, and who hands you the testing and commissioning records at handover. More fit-out disputes in this city start at that seam than at any finish or material.

Four things that should stop a shortlist: one lump-sum price with no breakdown behind it, a deposit above 50%, no named site engineer on the contract, and a portfolio full of renders with no addresses. If you want the authority side in full, we mapped it in our piece on renovation permits and the DM, DDA and Trakhees split.

When KOJ is the right call, and when to look elsewhere

KOJ makes obvious sense for a retail brand opening units under a mall fit-out manual, a hotel operator pushing a brand standard into a new property, a food and beverage group rolling out sites, or a company taking a full corporate floor. It makes even more sense when the same joinery package repeats across several locations and Saudi is on the map, since the firm has been open about its KSA expansion.

The mismatch is at the small end: one villa, one apartment, a 60 m² boutique, a small clinic, a home office. Small contracts inside large firms get junior attention, and that is a structural fact rather than a slight on anyone.

Two things people misread when researching this firm. First, public reviews are thin, which is completely normal for a business whose clients are brands, landlords and operators rather than individuals who leave star ratings. Absence of reviews is not evidence of a problem, and it is also not evidence of quality, so replace it with real diligence: ask for two references at your project size from the last 24 months, then call the landlord's fit-out coordinator instead of the client's marketing manager. Second, there is no public price list, and there should not be. Commercial fit-out is priced off drawings and a bill of quantities, and any firm publishing a fixed rate per square foot is publishing a starting point.

What a Dubai fit-out actually costs per square foot

These are market bands we see in Dubai, not a rate card, and one trap catches people every quarter: design fees and construction are often quoted in different units, and one square metre is 10.76 sqft. Convert before you compare two numbers.

Category A base build runs roughly AED 220 to 450 per sqft. Occupier Category B work sits at AED 280 to 600, premium specification at AED 600 to 900, and luxury turnkey passes AED 900 and can reach 1,500 or more. Standard offices land around AED 350 to 550 per sqft, with premium workplace at AED 600 to 1,500. Retail and food and beverage cluster toward the upper end of their band, because shopfront, extract and night-only working hours inside a trading mall all cost real money. The full split by category and space type is in our breakdown of fit-out cost per square foot.

Our own contracts are quoted in AED per square metre: from 1,500/m² for cosmetic work, from 3,000/m² for a capital renovation, and 8,500 to 16,000/m² for turnkey including furniture, appliances and decor. A standalone design project starts at AED 10,000 and takes three to six weeks. A 150 m² apartment runs two to six months on site depending on scope.

Something it costs us money to say plainly: if you have a dozen near-identical units to open across the GCC on a single brand standard, a contractor with its own factory will beat a studio like ours on lead time, and we will tell you that on the first call rather than three weeks into a tender.

Where DOMECO fits

We are a Dubai design and fit-out company with a Russian-speaking in-house team and our own crew rather than trades hired job by job. Completed work includes a retail boutique at Dubai Hills Mall at 135 m² in four months, an office fit-out in JLT at 190 m² in three months, apartments at Creek Address, Creek Horizon, City Walk and Downtown Boulevard, and villas on Palm Jumeirah at 375 m² over thirteen months and in Dubai Hills at 290 m² over eight months.

We are not an alternative to KOJ on a GCC retail rollout, and we would not pretend otherwise. We are the right call when the project is a villa, an apartment, an office or a boutique that you want finished under one contract, with the price fixed in that contract, a daily penalty on our side for delay, and a one-year workmanship warranty. Bring the drawings, your building's fit-out rules and the real budget, and we will tell you on the call whether we fit.

FAQ

What is the difference between design and build and build only?

Design and build puts drawings and construction under one contract with one accountable company, so a detail that cannot be built gets redrawn without a claim. Build only means you hire a designer separately, then tender the drawings to a contractor who prices exactly what is on them. Build only gives sharper competitive pricing on large jobs; design and build removes the seam where most residential and small commercial disputes start.

Does KOJ Interiors do residential projects?

The public portfolio is commercial, hospitality and retail, and private homes do not appear in it. Nothing suggests the firm is looking for villa or apartment work, and its factory-backed model is built for repeatable commercial packages. For a home renovation, look at residential design-and-build studios instead.

Which licences and approvals should I check before hiring a fit-out contractor in Dubai?

Start with the DET trade licence and confirm the listed activity covers fit-out contracting, verified on the public register rather than from a PDF. Then confirm the contractor is registered with the authority governing your address: Dubai Municipality, DDA for TECOM zones, Trakhees for Palm Jumeirah and other PCFC areas, DMCC for JLT, or DIFC. Anything touching fire systems, kitchen extract or escape routes also needs Dubai Civil Defence approval, plus an annual maintenance contract with an approved company before inspection.

How long does a fit-out take in Dubai?

Allow six to ten weeks for the approvals chain before site work begins, with a straightforward Dubai Municipality permit itself usually five to fifteen working days once drawings are complete. On site, a small retail unit typically runs three to four months, a mid-size office three to five, and an apartment two to six depending on whether MEP is being reworked. Long-lead joinery and imported stone are the two items that most often move a handover date.

What is usually missing from a fit-out quotation?

Four items go missing most often: authority and approval fees with the consultant's submission costs, the landlord's fit-out deposit and review charges, design supervision during construction, and variations, which get priced after the work is done unless the contract says how they are valued. Ask for MEP to be shown as a priced line rather than "by others", and get builders' clean and waste removal named explicitly.