Tesco / Dobbies – King’s Lynn

Just over a year after demolition of the iconic Campbell’s Soup Tower in Kings Lynn, R G Carter successfully completed construction of the first combined venture for Tesco and Dobbies Garden Centre as part of a major redevelopment scheme on the site. The scheme also incorporated remodel and extension of the petrol Station, a distribution centre, offices and employment units.

During the works we also dealt with BAPA agreements, major Anglian Water pump main diversions. With the assistance of Carter Design we redesigned the layout of the Distribution Centre and employment units avoiding the need to divert overhead power cables, which offered a considerable saving to our client.

The new Tesco store benefits from 80,000 square feet of sales space, both units are partially lit through roof lights in order to conserve energy. The entire unit was designed with sustainably sourced timber cladding and the building itself is constructed with a timber frame. 40,000 sq ft back of house and 57,000 sq ft of Dobbies Garden Centre.

The 63-acre Campbell’s Soup Factory site in King’s Lynn had been unused since 2007 when Premier Foods vacated the premises. R G Carter embarked upon a full demolition project; the iconic Campbell’s tower was razed to the ground by controlled explosives, watched by thousands and featured on BBC’s One Show, Anglia News and Sky News.

The project was completed in 28 weeks in its entirety, despite numerous design changes evolving from our participation in what was the first high level Tesco / Dobbies Steering Committee.

The cross coordination of bringing together two major retail offers into one building included many challenges, not least of which was the redesign of the shared lobby with six weeks to go. Only through collaboration with our client and with our supply chain did we successfully achieve completion on time and within budget.

The utilisation of our ‘one firm approach’ to the delivery of this project included:

• Carter Design was heavily involved from pre tender stage, developing innovative value engineered solutions.
• Existing concrete slabs were crushed to provide type & 6F2 and recycled for use on site.
• One Firm collaboration with Builders Equipment, Central Trades, Harvey Frost and Youngs Doors who all assisted with the project delivery.

A new initiative was undertaken at the site as staff members were invited to attend ‘open surgeries’ delivered by the project manager or site manager to encourage staff to voice concerns or ask questions.

A hotline was also set up for neighbouring commercial businesses to provide them with an instant point of contact if required.

We achieved 99% recycling levels, through concrete being broken up using remotely operated mobile guillotine breakers and bringing a concrete crusher onto the site. A total of 40,600 tonnes of concrete was processed ready for reuse into the development’s substructure and hard standings. 2,950 tonnes of metal was also recovered for recycling.