Spaceway fitout of new headquarters

Spaceway shows off its fitout of Wiggle's new headquarters .

Spaceway shows off its fitout of wiggle's new headquarters .

The opening of Wiggle's new headquarters in Northarbour Road, Portsmouth is a time of celebration for the company and also for Romsey based Spaceway South, which has fitted out the new 2,800 square metre building.

A landmark for Wiggle, which has grown from a start-up to a multi-million pound Internet based sports equipment company in just six years, the new building comprises of 2,400 square metres of warehousing and 400 square metres of office accommodation.

Fitted out to comply with the Hampshire Act, Spaceway South has created the optimum environment for Wiggle.

The company is fast becoming one of Britain's most successful and fast expanding Internet enterprises specialising in selling mountain and racing bikes, sports equipment and clothing for cycling, running and active sports.

Over the past six years Wiggle has seen orders rise from just 20 boxes per day to over 2,000.

Wiggle in the only Internet based company that supplies mountain and racing cycles fully assembled and ready to ride.

With a keen eye on Health and Safety, Wiggle fully tests each cycle before despatching it to the customer.

As the cycles are despatched in custom oversized boxes, Spaceway South needed to provide for the storage and despatch of these large items within its designs.

The warehouse area has been designed as a technically advanced facility fitted with mezzanine floors, conveyor systems, walkways, a bike assembly area and processing department.

The complex has been planned for maximum picking efficiency and to cater for expansion as volumes increase.

To make maximum use of the headroom in the warehouse area, a two tier and a single tier Flooritall Mezzanine floor have been installed to provide a total working area of 7,000m2.

Accommodating the multi-tier pallet racking system, this area has also been designed to provide Wiggle with room for expansion.

The packaging and despatch areas are fitted with an Interfloor reversible conveyor system and with a flexible "expandaveyor" and integrated conveyor and racking system.

The innovative racking layout has been designed to provide varying shelving configurations on the second floor and to accommodate large boxed items.

Expansion has been designed into the racking system to accommodate electric powered order pickers which Wiggle hope to install in the near future.

The installation of specially designed pallet gates enables the very large cycle despatch cartons to be transferred to the transit area.

The warehouse complex has been fitted through with mesh walkways.

These do not only ensure that the building complies with the Hampshire Act and fire regulations but also provides the warehouse with natural light.

The processing room has been designed to accommodate 50 computer terminals.

Orders taken from the computer are picked and then transferred to the packing line.

The order information is entered online for later checking against the picking details to prevent errors.

The packer then removes the items from the picking box, counts them off and checks them as they are packed into a box.

Spaceway South has specifically designed lighting levels so they do not cause any access glare and labels can be easily read.

To complete the fit-out, Spaceway South created a comfortable and functional office environment.

In this area, the company has designed and installed two full height double glazed offices accessed by fully glazed doubled doors as well as creating a secure computer room and a canteen with games area.

The addition of air conditioning throughout the office areas and the workshop has provided the best possible working conditions for employees.

"Spaceway South undertook the complete turn-key project for us", said Harvey Jones, Technical Director.

"The company has an excellent reputation and has also worked successfully with us on other ventures, so when we acquired this new facility we knew that we could rely on them for a first rate job confident in the knowledge that we could leave everything to them and concentrate on our business".

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