The installation of a mezzanine floor to expand production capability in original factory, followed by a second contract involving the complete refurbishment of a newly acquired building.

Spaceway installed a large mezzanine floor  in the company’s factory in Alton. Due to the nature of the business - making cartons and cardboard boxes - Spaceway put in a fire-rated floor, which was also designed to accommodate machinery above. Pallet safety gates were installed to load items onto the mezzanine floor.

In the second contract, Spaceway worked with Beacon Packaging on a refurbishment project. When Beacon acquired another company, they also took over a building and decided to completely refurbish the existing offices. Spaceway undertook all the work including new carpets, internal decoration, new ceilings, new lighting and a kitchen area.

“When we acquired another

company, it was vital to us to

integrate the two businesses as

quickly and smoothly as possible.

Having used Spaceway before, we

knew we could rely on them to meet our requirements.

Spaceway worked at high speed, but with their usual

attention to detail, to prepare the new site for both our

administrative and warehouse staff.

“They delivered a total solution to our needs.”

Trevor Lupton

General Manager, Beacon Packaging

Plastimo UK Limited, established in 1963, is now recognised as Europe’s expert manufacturer in the field of plastic engineering and one of the leading boating equipment distributors. Unique in the leisure boating trade, Plastimo offers a comprehensive range of 6,500 products including lifejackets, safety harnesses and life rafts.

Due to its continued growth and success in 2003, Plastimo amalgamated with Eastbourne-based Navtech. This in turn led to a need for larger premises for the expanding company to operate from. Plastimo selected a spacious recently completed unit at Hamilton Business Park in Hedge End; the next challenge was to re-fit the 38,000 sq ft space to meet their needs… Enter Spaceway.  

The first phase of the works involved installing longspan shelving and pallet racking (manufactured by Planned Storage) in the ground floor warehouse area so that stock from both sites could be transferred to the new building as part of the move – timing and planning were vital.

The racks and shelves were specified according to the layout drawings which had been produced for each of the rows. These in turn had been designed specifically for the products they would store, including vertical racks for storing the oars.

In addition packing benches, conveyors and safety barriers were also specified within the overall warehouse layout and design to accommodate the storage, packing and despatch requirements of the operation.

A small raised FlooriTall™ mezzanine platform was installed to support the warehouse office, which was constructed using Excalibur double skin steel partitioning. This was designed and positioned in order that the Warehouse Manager could monitor and oversee the warehouse operation with ease.

A separate area was created for the warehouse canteen; this was also of a monobloc construction using Excalibur double skin steel partitioning with a suspended ceiling. The floor was covered with a timber plank effect vinyl and a contemporary style kitchen was installed and finished in a modern denim blue. The canteen was then furnished with café-style circular tables and chairs in a beech melamine finish with chrome legs.

The third area of the ground floor to be fitted out was the110 square metre "Nav Man" Showroom. This also involved a monobloc double skin steel construction, with a suspended ceiling and the same vinyl timber plank effect flooring as in the canteen.

"We are delighted with the finished product. The space has been turned into an exceptional working environment, which will serve us well for years to come."

Paul Callus

Managing Director

Plastimo

Spaceway Group, a leading UK provider of fit-out solutions, has been instrumental in providing off-site data storage company, Data Protect UK, with an additional, secure area for its clients’ data and archive material.  Spaceway has designed, supplied and installed a mezzanine floor, fire protection, partitioning, racking, lighting and electrics for Data Protect UK’s London storage facility.

Won through a competitive tender, Spaceway was awarded the contract for its interpretation of Data Protect UK’s requirements, innovative designs, competitive pricing and attention to detail.  Spaceway’s design now provides the necessary infrastructure for Data Storage UK to manage the data storage and retrieval needs for a wide range of its customers operating in a spectrum of markets including finance, media, institutions and government bodies.    

With designs agreed, Spaceway began by installing a mezzanine floor which has been appropriately fire protected to meet all necessary regulations.  Under the mezzanine floor, Spaceway has installed shelving as well as stud and track partitioning to create a secure area for storing IT tapes.  Further longspan shelving has been installed on the mezzanine floor for archive box storage. Now, a total of 12,000 additional boxes can be accommodated in the new area.  To complete the project, Spaceway fitted all the electrics including lighting and emergency illumination.  

Alex Marshall, Proprietor of Data Protect UK said:  “Being one of the region’s top data storage providers we place great importance on the conditions under which we store our customers’ property.  Spaceway has provided us with a fantastic and cost effective archive facility, which was completed on time and on budget.  We are delighted with completed project and won’t hesitate to use Spaceway again”. 

Spaceway’s ability to provide a totally integrated service from design through to build has resulted in it winning the contract to provide Dublin based Johnson Brothers Group with a 14,000m² state-of-the-art warehouse facility.  Won on a competitive tender, Spaceway was able to demonstrate its ability to turn a basic brief into a detailed design which has incorporated a mezzanine floor, carton live racking, shelving, a conveyor, Interfloor chute, plastic containers and labelling.  Over a number of weeks, Spaceway’s design team worked out product volumes and potential long-term growth to provide Johnson Brothers with the optimum warehouse design.   

Johnson Brother Group is Ireland’s most dynamic, innovative, technologically advanced and successful distributor with unrivalled coverage of grocery multiples, wholesale, convenience, forecourts and pharmacy channels.  A family owned business with over 100 years experience, the company prides itself on its excellent service with best value solutions for sales and marketing, logistics and administration services.

To kick off the project, Spaceway extended an existing floor by 142 sq m and installed a 786 sq metre mezzanine floor over the goods in/out area, which was designed with sufficient height to enable clearance for forklift trucks to operate safety underneath. Installed out of hours so as not to disrupt the day-to-day busy working of the warehouse. Once this was completed Spaceway began installing the carton live racking and sloping shelving over the new and existing shelving to cover an area of 1500 square metres.  Carried out during normal hours, the work also included the reconfiguring of some existing shelving for very slow moving lines.  To complete this part of the project, Spaceway then labelled all the locations so that product lines could then be transferred into the totes and stored in the appropriate locations.

The carton live and shelving systems were bespoke designed to accommodate the picking of existing lines as well as to provide flexibility to alter and add lines aligned with the company’s growth plan. Three different sizes of plastic totes, to accommodate 4000 plus product lines of differing size and weights, form a key element of the carton live and shelving layouts and provide Johnson Brothers with an efficient means of storing items. In addition the incorporation of sloped shelving, for slower moving lines, provides a very efficient use of space as well as an easy means of picking. 

To complete the project, Spaceway supplied over 5500 plastic containers and installed a new packing line with workstations fitted alongside.  The packing line comprises of a lineshaft conveyor, which feeds into a 10-metre Gravity Roller Conveyor that collates the packed items ready for despatch.  Providing a very effectual and cost effective solution, the conveyor is also very space efficient as it is only a 3 metre spiral whereas if a Interfloor conveyor had been installed it would be been between 8-10metres in length. 

Commenting on the completed project, Andrew Mullen, Consultant at Johnson Brothers said:  “We chose Spaceway as it was proactive, responsive to our requirements and provided us with the best possible designs.  We are delighted with the finished project, which has provided us with very functional facility that will enable us to manage change with flexibility in response to the rapidly changing marketplace”.