Marks & Spencer’s new national distribution centre in Bradford has been fitted out, and future-proofed, with the help of door specialist Hörmann.
The company was charged with installing the doors and automated loading bay equipment for the 1.1 million sq ft facility.
Working alongside the main contractor Winvic, Hörmann fitted dock levellers, dock shelters, high speed doors, pedestrian access doors and 134 insulated loading bay doors.
To provide scope for further development, the original plan for the site involved space for future loading bays. The potential bay doors were to be covered with exterior cladding that could be stripped out to make way for doors as and when needed.
Hörmann’s project director, Tom Langley, worked on site, and suggested an alternative that would save the time and costs of this rebuilding. His idea was to install 41 convertible, manual doors in advance of requirement.
These could then be converted to full operational standards merely by installing dock equipment and motors to drive the mechanisms.
This will save the time and costs of tearing down cladding and installing new doors in the future, as had been expected.
Langley said: “We have a frame agreement in place with ProLogis where we supply all their dock equipment to new distribution centres.
“Working with ProLogis we are introduced to new contractors such as Winvic Construction and new clients such as Marks & Spencer. We are given the opportunity to show the quality of our products and our service.”
