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Early contractor involvement pays off for catering company

Currently under construction, Westconnex is a major part of the NSW Government’s integrated transport plan for Sydney. The advent of the project has meant that many well-established businesses have faced compulsory land acquisitions by the Roads and Maritime Services and therefore been forced to relocate. Many of these are food manufacturers that have long held client bases in and around the Sydney metropolitan area.

European Catering is just such a manufacturer. The company produces a range of complete meals and accompaniments for the corporate catering market. Producing a vast array of fresh and chilled ready to cook meals and finger food requires both production dexterity and attention to detail.

While the construction of Westconnex meant the company had no choice but to relocate to another facility, fortunately they had sufficient time to design and perfect the layout for the facility. However, although they understood their operations and how best to run production, they realised quickly that they did not have the resources in-house to design, cost or complete the project.

So they appointed Total Construction Food & Beverage division on an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) agreement to assist in designing and budgetary costing for the project. Importantly, this could be used to help secure appropriate compensation for the relocation.

Total set about identifying European Catering’s requirements and helping the business adapt to the chosen new facility. Quickly, Total Construction’s Process Engineering Team identified an important issue – the new facility was small but would be required to work functionally as a full manufacturing kitchen.

The team at Total stepped up to the challenge. After working through the client’s needs and objectives, and evaluating the process flows required for the new site, they developed a process design that would allow for maximum efficiency from the space. In addition, Total had to ensure the proposed process flow and segregation would meet hygiene guidelines for ready to eat or reheat high risk food products.

The Design Process
The design process for the European Catering project was broken into stages:
Design Stage 1: This first stage needed to focus on the equipment layout that would enable shared personnel control of multiple equipment processes and utility services (power, water, air etc.). This had to be mapped effectively to minimise the client’s sunken capital expenditure.

Design Stage 2: The second stage had to ensure high risk products were segregated physically from potential contamination of raw materials by introducing separate changing facilities for personnel. Sufficient area had to be allocated for meal assembly and dispatch.
Design Stage 3: The aim of this stage was to ensure all walls, ceilings and floors were supplied and installed according to world’s best practice hygienic protocols. It was necessary to maintain segregation by having separate drainage and positive air flow in the high-risk area.

Design Stage 4: During this final stage, Total had to ensure both operational and process layouts could be used for the desired intent and purpose providing operational effectiveness. The aim was to allow for the production of food safe products, as well as flexibility for future product developments.

One design challenge centred around the client’s requirements for freezer space. The new facility had limited space as it was, and to take up valuable real estate with freezer was going to be difficult. Total proposed a two-level freezer, utilising an internal steel construction with grated flooring on the second level, to allow for cold air circulation between the two levels. To reduce the risk of contaminants falling from the above freezer to the lower level, dedicated walk paths were introduced with catch trays beneath.

Total provided European Catering with the ideal design layout and buildability profile (including costing) for submission to authorities for consideration; and also supported the client throughout the evaluation process review to ensure justifications were provided when requested.

The client secured the appropriate compensation, and work commenced almost immediately on fitting out the new facility.

A Positive Outcome
Engaging a builder under an ECI afforded European Catering the confidence to clearly provide costings and justifications to authorities to secure fair compensation to relocate. Total Construction’s “inside out” approach to design and understanding of the equipment processes being employed, enabled them to put forward a well-designed manufacturing layout fit for purpose in the space available.

Total Construction’s commitment to European Catering’s “journey” was unyielding and enabled completion of the project within timeframes and budget, and laid the foundations for ongoing manufacturing cost efficiencies to be maintained while keeping the highest quality food safety practices in place.

Arnold Huber, director of European Catering, was delighted with the final outcome.
“The recent facility fit out works Total Construction carried out for European Catering was conducted with utmost professionalism. From the first initial contact, working with Total Construction’s Food and Beverage Division has been a pleasure. Total’s approach to being along for the journey with their clients was both true and beneficial,” he said.

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