Cumbernauld on the outskirts of Glasgow may be famous as the principal home for Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs service (HMRC), but HBPW has been called in to carry out a key project just down the road from the country’s tax centre.
Business logistics company GIST, design, manage and operate complex supplychain solutions for customers world-wide and, in the UK, represent some of the country’s leading high street brands.
HBPW Senior Partner, Paul Withers, said: “The company has an existing depot in Cumbernauld which operates on behalf of a raft of largely anonymous but leading retailers.
“As part of the company’s continuing operations, we have been asked to lead a project that will see the refurbishment and expansion of operations at the Wardpark North site, one of several in the Glasgow area.
“Right now it is effectively a large storage ‘shed’ with lots of hard standing areas and an in-house vehicle maintenance facility.”
However, plans are now well in hand to build a second chill store within the complex and this, said Paul, required the strengthening of the building’s roof structure.
“A chill store comprises insulated walls and ceilings which are very heavy. Obviously the walls are supported off the ground but the store’s ceiling has to be supported off the existing building frame, hence the need to make the roof more robust. There are also a number of chillers that will be suspended from the roof and these will weigh in at four or five tonnes each.”
Special loading doors are also being fitted in the building, enabling visiting vehicles to hygienically seal, preventing any hot air from entering or cold air exiting, the building.
GIST also provides high-integrity cold chain solutions that enables its customers to meet an increasingly challenging retail demand, with maximum efficiency and product shelf life but with minimum waste.
The company’s temperature controlled network specialises in the end-to-end movement of chilled food, fresh produce and horticulture for both retailers and manufacturers, facilitating the movement of more than 100,000 pallets of temperature controlled product every week.
“As an engineer I have worked in chill store environments all my working life and I still find challenges of this nature fascinating and professionally challenging.”
Client: GIST Ltd
Contractor: Turnstyle Construction