Birchall spreads good news for cheese production

Building services provider Birchall has provided the perfect environment for packing Britain's favourite cheese after powering a GBP26-million factory expansion for manufacturing giant Dairy Crest.

The company, with offices in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle-under-Lyme, designed and installed all the mechanical services for a new 5,400-sq m mezzanine floor at the high-output plant in Nuneaton as part of a GBP2.9-million deal with Dairy Crest's mechanical and electrical engineering consultants Ludgate Practice.

Faced with the need to keep factory production running at the correct temperatures and to deliver heavy equipment to a busy site, Birchall completed the project in just six months without causing any disruption.

The new semi-automated packing facility has been introduced to meet demand for Cathedral City, the UK's biggest selling cheese brand, sales of which have trebled to GBP170 million a year over the past five years.

John Graham, Birchall design director, said: "Critical to the factory's operation was the need to maintain areas at different conditions in terms of temperature, air quality and room pressure, in accordance with food factory directives".

This involved the installation of four large air handling systems housed in an adjoining plant room with supply and return air ductwork up to 1.5 metres in diameter running between the two areas.

"The lower internal room temperatures required the installation of a large chiller plant - and sprinkler protection was provided to the factory and the roof void throughout when the ventilation ductwork was installed".

Mukesh Visavadia, Ludgate Practice director, said: "Birchall were very pro-active at both the detailed design stage and the construction stage of a tight and challenging project, which they successfully completed to the agreed programme and cost plan.

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