Strategic planning and 'thinking outside the box' might best describe the business ethos of our client, Service Foods Ltd, headquartered in Auckland. The food service provider has made its mark in New Zealand, catering primarily to the hospitality industry by bringing premium, quality foods directly to restaurants, airlines and other specialty food outlets. 

Our role with Service Foods was to update their core business model, with an in-house distribution arm operating throughout the country. We were commissioned with the erection of a new food processing and distribution centre for their largest building to date, which would also serve as their new main office. 

The new 10,300m² facility took nearly two years of preplanning, with the initial plan drawn up by another contractor. We provided input along the way and forwarded design iterations to their management team, which helped cement the project's final scope. The draft terms themselves needed to meet several requirements, the first of which required aligning the design with a predetermined budget. Secondly, preferred subcontractors that Service Foods Ltd had previously worked with (particularly in the refrigeration industry) needed to be involved in the build. Lastly, contractual terms for meeting the target deadlines, to which all parties could agree, had to be put in place. 

Across all three points, our team met Service Foods Ltd's expectations. A partnership with Engenium, an engineering firm with which we've long had a relationship, was pivotal to designing and implementing the final solution. Our pricing and contract teams worked closely with Engenium to arrive at a workable solution that Service Foods Ltd accepted. Calder Stewart's own Adrian Mathieson was instrumental in bringing everything together as project sponsor. 

The facility itself is large by any standard, with the main building measuring 172m long by 60m wide. The layout includes 16 truck docks and a 3,520m², two-level food processing area. Complete with a mezzanine floor, the space can process a full spectrum of food types, from fish, beef, pork, poultry and lamb to a range of vegetables, fruit and other produce. Our team worked closely with the equipment vendors for this section during their installation, providing a suitable load-bearing solution in advance. 

The separate refrigeration area includes two massive chillers, measuring over 800m² each and a 14m tall, 1,784m² freezer with full height racking. At the other end of the complex, there's a 3,600m² dry store capable of storing a wide range of specialty food types. An environmental load-out area was included in the build to ensure food safety and all hygiene requirements were met. At the front of the facility stands a three-story, 1,500m² office, designed to a high architectural style and specification.

We have a history of developing smarter property outcomes for our clients, and these purpose-built premises for Glassons were no exception. The popular clothing brand has been around for a century, and to stay in both business and fashion, they’ve continued to reinvent themselves to reflect changes in the industry. Today, Glassons is progressively moving online, yet they still retain their strong brick and mortar presence nationally across 36 outlets. 

To better cater to their online clientele, owner Hallenstein Glasson Holdings determined it was time for Glassons to expand their distribution centre, which is where we came in. The Glasson’s team turned to us for the perfect location and Design Build solution. Our booming Hornby Quadrant section in Christchurch was selected as the locale, providing ample space for a new warehouse and dispatching centre. 

The project included all our classic package options — structural steel, precast concrete and reinforced building supplies, all sourced from within our own companies. Without a hitch, the ground crew completed the build weeks ahead of schedule. The build came right in time for the client’s online launch, which greatly increased their satisfaction with our overall service.

Having heard Hoyts were looking for a new build, our property and development team approached them with a potential site we had identified. We handled the land purchase and searched for commercial, cost-effective ways to fill the building and complement the design of the cinema.

Preparing the land

Extensive remedial work was needed on the land, which had contamination issues. A quantity surveyor checked costs, and meticulous records were kept on the number of truckloads of dirt going offsite.

Once contamination issues were sorted, the land had to be strengthened by drilling and compressing stone columns into the ground.

Designed for efficient construction

The project was a genuine Design Build, following an efficient material and construction sequence.

One of the biggest challenges, however, proved to be site access. Little room was left to manoeuvre; streets and the new Justice Precinct bound the site on either side. The building was split into multiple phases, built-in stages, independent of each other, to avoid complications. This design sped up construction onsite, providing sufficient access for construction teams.

Over the first nine months, while there was space, our 250-tonne haulier crane was available for heavy lifting; afterwards, mobile cranes took over the light structure.

The building’s design is essentially two different structures in one. Each cinema also exists as an individual, concrete box to meet acoustic requirements. In comparison, the east half (the high atrium and dining precinct) is a ‘lightweight’ steel structure. Because of the length of the building, the area is split down the middle, with a big seismic joint that runs east to west. The advantage of this is that if there’s another big earthquake, the building will move at that point, minimising damage and risk.

Speed and safety

The precast concrete and metal façades are designed as clip-ons, an easy solution to limited and complicated site access. These were fabricated and assembled offsite, then transported, lifted and bolted into place. Designing materials in this way sped up construction time and reduced onsite clutter, yet also meant builders worked less than 1m above ground level rather than over a 15m high vertical face. Overall, this simplified construction, even down to marking out fixing lines for the plywood using chalk.

Converting ‘acoustic science’ into buildable solutions also simplified onsite construction techniques, reducing temporary works and potential risks for construction staff during the installation. Acoustic boards were placed on top of the purlins rather than hung 20m in the air.

The ultimate fit-out

The fit-out phase required time and space management, not common to most projects. Three different fit-outs needed to happen simultaneously, with one loading bay and no onsite storage. A robust booking system was put in place to manage this process, with a single pull in bay on Colombo street, also meaning all trucks had to book their space out a week and a half in advance.

With a daily average of 140+ people already on a compact site (more during fit-out), stringent health and safety practices were a prominent part of our undertaking.

“To date, EntX is probably the biggest development of a commercial nature we’ve undertaken being was led from a design point of view.”