Building envelope specialist, CA Group Limited, has announced that it has completed work on seven new depots, in locations throughout the UK, to support the expansion of DPD, part of La Poste’s international express-parcels subsidiary, GeoPost.
CA Group worked closely with a number of developers on the various depots including Goodman, at a major site in Hinkley, Roxhill on sites in Northampton, Peterborough, Edinburgh, Dartford and Radlett and SEGRO at Reading.
Stuart Brown, Project Development Manager for CA Group, explained: “GeoPost employs more than 7,000 people in the UK, as well as operating more than 3,000 vehicles from 50 sites in order to deliver as many as 1.6m parcels per week. For a company of this size, specialising in e-commerce, disruption is the number one enemy.
“In order for GeoPost to operate efficiently, avoid delay and effectively and safely manage the millions of parcels which pass through its depots every year, each building must meet very high standards in certain specific areas: the building’s operational costs must be kept to a minimum, it must not leak and, crucially, the risk of fire spread must be minimised. Failure to manage any of these key elements puts the entire operation at risk.”
To effectively address these issues, CA Group’s built up roof and wall system, Twin-Therm, was selected for each of the seven depots. The system is a fully-walkable, cost effective solution which is delivered as a carbon neutral envelope. The use of rooflights increases the amount of natural daylight into the building reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. The buildings also benefit from a reduction in operational costs as a result of measures to maximise air tightness and through the use of effective thermal detailing.
Twin-Therm successfully addresses the issue of water ingress, one of the biggest hidden costs in a building of this type, by eliminating the use of fasteners which penetrate the system from the outside to the inside of the building. It also carries a meaningful, 25-year guarantee to meet the client’s specific requirements. Guarantees of up to 40 years are also available on this system.
The system uses man-made mineral fibre insulation, which is logically non-flammable. This factor contributes significantly to GeoPost’s business continuity plan by ensuring that, in the event of a fire, the building itself does not add to the fire load. In addition, toxic smoke emissions, which pose a serious threat to the lives of the people working in and around the building, are also dramatically reduced. The choice of man made mineral fibre insulation also addresses the issue of end of life disposal costs, associated with some blown foam insulations on the market.
Brown concluded: “The considerable investment in the GeoPost network will ensure the company is in the best possible position to meet its growing delivery obligations to its customers. We are delighted to have been able to support GeoPost in this expansion.”
