Simpson have recently completed two more LFC projects for Sainsbury’s Argos, at Trafford Park, Manchester and Bedford. These are small distribution hubs, known as Local Fulfilment Centres, which support the nearby Argos Store in Stores.

Trafford Park – Manchester LFC

We originally completed the Trafford Park LFC in September 2022 and 2 years later we were back to extend the stock capacity of the unit by installing a full mezzanine across the warehouse along with multiple goods lifts, sets of stairs and parcel chutes. Along with the thousands of additional shelving bays to fill the new space. The challenge was that Sainsburys needed to keep their full operation live and without disruption throughout our construction period. To achieve this Simpson needed to problem solve and agree a suitable phasing that maintained the stocking and picking operations of the distribution centre as well as give us suitable working space to safely install the large steel sections of the mezzanine and the high volume of new or relocated racking.

Other challenges were around the need to reroute M&E services to enable us to build the new mezzanine whilst keeping the existing space operational with lighting and heating of the operatives.

Due to the nature of the project a high degree of day to day communication with the client and Ops teams were required and our site team built excellent relationships and received fantastic feedback upon completion.

Bedford LFC

This is a much smaller LFC project than we usually complete that had its own unique challenges. We took 2 small areas in an existing, large regional distribution centre and created an outbound / inbound area as well as office and canteen spaces. We needed to carry out the works around ongoing distribution operations and once again a high level of coordination with the Argos operations team and DHL network team needed to be achieved. The client was extremely cost constrained and Simpson worked with them to deliver excellent quality as well as an increased scope but also keeping within the original budget. The Simpson team once again received excellent feedback showing that we are the preferred choice on this workstream for Sainsbury’s.

On Saturday 14 members of the Simpson team took on the 10mile Yorkshire Tough Mudder at Broughton Hall in Skipton. There was certainly a lot of mud, sweat, but thankfully no tears, more importantly a lot of fun was definitely had.

The team did absolutely fantastic and all in the aid of raising money for charity. An amazing £2,000 has been raised so far for Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity and Katharine House Hospice.

A huge well done to everyone who took part, a big thank you to everyone for your support and a huge thank you to everyone who donated.

We had the pleasure of participating in the recent Marks and Spencer Charity Football Tournament hosted at Powerleague in Leeds. This event brought together organisations within M&S’s construction and fit-out contractor supply chain to raise donations and support for Youngminds.

YoungMinds is a leading UK charity championing the well-being and mental health of children and young people. Its initiatives and support strategies aim to help children and young people overcome life's adversities and succeed in life. To find out more about YoungMinds please follow this link: https://lnkd.in/davk7pCG‍

The event has raised £6,500 so far, a fantastic achievement for everyone involved and our thanks to Marc Simpson for organising! Our team also had a positive outcome, coming away with a trophy on the day!

Works at the cathedral are progressing well with the start of the reinstallation of the conserved stained glass by Barley studio to the East chancel.

The decorative scheme has started to the Chancel ceiling with Bernard Watson undertaking this element.

Steel supports have been craned into position to carry the ornate 500kg light fittings over the font and blessed sacrament chapel.

The scaffolding to the main tower is ready to start stripping now that the high-level conservation works are complete.

We have started to replaster the walls with traditional lime plaster to the East of the cathedral.

Simpson successfully completed our 8^th LFC project for Sainsbury’s at Hillthorn Park, Washington, Sunderland and with another 2 LFC projects starting in the coming months it highlights our standing as the preferred choice contractor for this work stream with Sainsbury’s.

The “LFC’s” are Local Fulfilment Centres for Sainsburys, Argos operations. As many will know, Argos stores have predominantly now moved into Sainsburys supermarkets. As a result of this, the stock holding availability of these stores is reduced and a greater reliance on nearby distribution networks are needed.

We install vehicle to ground dock lifts for HGV unloading into the LFC, the stock is then located on the warehouse racking before being picked and distributed via the fleet of Argos vans. Each LFC is designed to hold in excess of 100,000 lines of various products from electronics to toys and garden to home wares.

Security is a client focus area and as part of the works, we create a secure yard with new automated vehicle gates and ANPR systems. Access control is installed along with CCTV and alarms systems and monitoring station with metal detector shrouds.

Offices, meeting rooms and staff facilities are created and follow a standard fit out solution that is the same on most LFC projects. The Simpson joiners shop provided the unitary which was installed by Simpson joiners and available (in between jobs) site managers with joinery skills.

As part of Sainsburys push to be more carbon efficient the engineering model utilises new Air Source heat pumps which we supply and install on concrete plinths as well as the required below ground drainage for the defrost cycle.

A new addition to the Washington LFC design was the inclusion of a full vehicle washdown station, which houses all the facilities you would need to clean and maintain the standard fleet of vans. Including new drainage, concrete plinth for the equipment along with ductwork for services to the location in the yard.

Our site managers Gary Fagan and Steve Barwick turned out a well finished project and the client team at Sainsburys Argos have been very happy and offered excellent feedback to our team.

A great night was had last night at the RICS Yorkshire & Humberside Awards, especially when Ledston Hall was awarded the ‘Heritage Project’ award. Here's looking to the national awards on the 4th October.