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| Fast Build Cold Store for APS Salads  Following major investment in their Kent operations, APS Salads, is producing their best crop ever and had an urgent need for additional cooling capacity. Rising to the challenge, Smart Space, the temporary buildings specialist, responded with a custom built insulated cold store that they installed in less than one week from enquiry. The new building from Smart Space is modular with an aluminium frame and solid insulated wall panels together with double skin air-insulated PVC roof. Being a temporary and light weight structure, ground preparation was minimal with the building secured directly to the concrete apron. Having a good degree of insulation and a door system to minimise air infiltration, operating costs for cooling will be minimised.APS, one of the UK's largest producers of tomatoes and salad crops, has a mission to produce outstanding, fresh, high quality tomatoes. The company is very resource aware and has invested heavily in technology to minimize environmental impact. At their Kent site this has included the installation of two Rolls Royce generators that power the site and export excess electricity to the local community. Waste heat from the generation process heats the greenhouses while CO2 from generators is also being injected into the greenhouses to boost production. APS Director, Phil Pearson explained, "The scheme has been outstanding, producing a bumper crop of high quality fruit to such an extent that our existing cold store capacity was insufficient. Timely cooling of the product is essential to preserving quality and ensuring good keeping properties so the installation of new chilling capacity at the start of the main cropping season was a priority. We approached several temporary building suppliers and from the outset were impressed by the business-like approach at Smart Space. They not only supplied the building, but went out of their way to find us a cooling equipment supplier and fit a high efficiency strip door that provides convenient access and minimises air changes to keep cooling costs lower." Smart Space, managing director Antony Hunt noted, "I have spent all my career in this business and responding to customer needs is instinctive. In this case it was particularly satisfying that we could deliver this project in such a short time. We understand that APS may need the building for 18 months or so until they have upgraded their main cold store. High specification temporary buildings are a speciality, but we also offer light weight and rapidly installed interim buildings, and low cost fully insulated permanent buildings that comply with the latest Building Regulation and have a 35 year design life." write your comments about the article :: © 2014 Construction News :: home page |