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