PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Two dock levellers were installed for loading product.
knew where to go. They are also in a 50 / 50 partnership with the property owner of the park, James Ross Stewart, for this development.“ We wanted to diversify more into cold storage but we lacked the funds to manage on our own and, therefore, approached James as a partner and investor,” explains Uwe Schmidthaus.
Caroline Schmidthaus did the initial design for the cold store, which was then given to the architects to draw up. All the way through the process, the Schmidthauses were immersed in the process, with regular meetings for all parties involved taking place every two weeks.
The Southern Cold Storage project first broke ground with civils in April 2015, and ran perfectly on schedule with the commissioning of the refrigeration plant commencing in November that year, only eight months later.
“ We would attribute that success to a hands-on owner-management approach to monitoring the schedule on a weekly basis with all contractors present, constantly improving and managing potential problems before they arose,” explains Kevin Walter, mechanical engineer at Lutz Refrigeration.
“ Having the room up and running before the December rush was crucial to the success of the business,” says Walter.
CLIENT BRIEF
The basic layout was determined by the land available with a view to storing as many pallets as possible in the available envelope to optimise rental revenue against operating expense costs. To achieve this, mobile racks were used wherever possible together with a small contingent of stationery racks to allow
The blower coils inside the cold store. Storax mobile racking was installed inside the cold store.
28 www. coldlinkafrica. co. za COLD LINK AFRICA • July | August 2017