11 October 2012
AKW Group Invests in a Recycled Modular Building from Foremans for its New Headquarters
Transport, warehousing, freight forwarding and contract packing specialist, AKW Group Plc, has invested in a new purpose-designed headquarters building from Foremans Relocatable Building Systems.
The two-storey office scheme at Trafford Park near Manchester is a recycled and fully refurbished modular building. Foremans has also supplied a single modular building for use as a driver's rest room and canteen.
The new premises have allowed all AKW's departments to relocate to a single building to accommodate around 40 staff. Facilities include open plan and cellular offices, a board room, reception, a kitchenette on each floor, toilets and a booking-in area for drivers.
The investment is part of AKW's ongoing expansion, which has included four new warehouses totalling over 190,000sqft and 40 new trailers to take its fleet to over 100. The company now has more than 650,000sqft of warehousing facilities.
Commenting on the new buildings, Tony Worthington, Chairman of AKW Group, said, "We looked at purchasing a new modular building from several suppliers, but the Foremans recycled and refurbished option represented the best value and with no compromise on the quality of the accommodation. As part of the selection process we visited Foremans' head office and production centre in East Yorkshire and were impressed with their customer service from the first meeting."
"This is a fresh, modern building that could still be in use for the next 50 years. It was very cost effective, configured to our specific business requirements and really is as good as new."
"We had outgrown our existing facilities and needed to put all departments in one single building. This helps us to encourage better engagement across the business, has improved our facilities for staff and has created a more professional working environment."
The building for AKW comprises 16 steel-framed modules that arrived on site refurbished and almost fully fitted out, reducing disruption to the company's existing operations. Only the structure of the building was recycled, which allowed AKW to benefit from the speed, quality and lack of disruption of off-site construction, whilst also reducing its carbon footprint. The modules were refurbished and upgraded with new windows, air conditioning, wall linings, partitions, M&E services, doors, flooring, and cladding, to create high quality office accommodation.
Foremans' buildings have a wide range of applications in the transport and logistics sectors, including canteens, shower blocks, reception areas, open plan offices, meeting and training suites, depot buildings, staff welfare facilities, and security kiosks.
Foremans is the UK's leading quality pre-owned modular building supplier, and is part of the Shepherd Group, one of the largest privately-owned companies in the UK. It holds the biggest selection of Portakabin-manufactured buildings available for recycling and reconfiguring in the UK, from its 82,000sqm production facilities in East Yorkshire and southern operations centre in Hemel Hempstead.
For further information about recycled and refurbished modular buildings for transport and logistics businesses, visit www.foremansbuildings.info, email info@foremansbuildings.co.uk, or call 01964 544344.
Editor's Notes
1. Recycling and refurbishing modular buildings is a highly sustainable alternative to new build:
- Pre-owned modular buildings generate less than 10 per cent of the carbon emissions compared to a newly manufactured building of equivalent size (source: CO2 Emissions from Use, Scrapping and Manufacture of Modular Buildings, Modular and Portable Building Association)
- Using a recycled building structure, Foremans achieves consistently high test results for air tightness. This is because of how the modular buildings are enhanced with the installation of new cladding, window systems with high U values, high frequency lighting and all new M&E services
- Relocating and re-using modular buildings is a highly sustainable alternative to the demolition and disposal of buildings in landfill sites, which has significant environmental implications
- Because much of the refurbishment work takes place off site, the Foremans approach generates fewer vehicle movements to site than traditional new build.
2. Foremans offers a full range of construction services for its bespoke buildings, including planning advice and submissions, Building Regulations approvals, funding options, and all aspects of the building design, space planning, project management, ground works, fitting out, delivery, site installation, testing and commissioning.
