Waitrose National Distribution Centre

Waitrose National Distribution Centre

Location: Milton Keynes

In late 2014 Playfords successfully secured the tender bid to install the data network at Waitrose’s largest distribution centre in the United Kingdom. Due the scale of the construction and installation works this project ran for 6 months on site for Playfords tendered works.

The success in Playfords’ bid lay with the competitive cost submitted for the tender but also in the fact that Playfords have long standing historical ties with Waitrose and John Lewis Partnership as well as being a registered Systems Integrator for Commscope products. The works were secured through a supply chain agreement with the nominated electrical contractor who had engaged with Playfords on previous projects and had decided to entrust this work to Playfords again.

The property itself fell just under 1,000,000 square feet with multiple working levels in the office areas and a standard working height of 17.5m in the warehouse area. While the height posed a challenging environment to work in, Playfords’ commitment to health and safety training (IPAF for MEWPs) and diligence in auditing saw operatives working at this height for 5 months with zero incidents.

The final install comprised of 986 CAT6 data outlets and 698 LC fibre terminations. 37 kilometres of Commscope Gigaspeed XL cable and 149 kilometres of single mode fibre cores were installed. The quantity of componentry required saw Playfords work closely with Anixter (supplier of Commscope products) to ship items from around Europe to meet tight deadlines. 32 Rittal data cabinets were installed to the client’s specification.

The project was completed on time to the issued schedule for Playfords and on budget costs stated. Final handover saw Playfords receive zero snags and two technical queries only which were cleared within 24 hours. Feedback from the client and our supply chain partners was very positive with all parties stating they would look to use Playfords again.