When premium ingredients supplier Albion Fine Foods was looking for a location to support its rapid growth, Goodman’s Crossways Commercial Park provided the ideal space for the business to expand and realise its future ambitions.
Part of family-owned Vestey Holdings, Albion Fine Foods supplies chefs in London and the South East with quality dairy, frozen and dry goods, as well as specialist items from its range of more than 4,000 products.
Making up to 1,400 deliveries a day and operating seven days a week, the business required a strategically-located distribution facility that could meet growing demand, increase efficiency and enable speedy delivery for its customers.
The area’s large labour pool also provides opportunities for recruiting staff as the business grows. Kent is home to more than 2,500 food and beverage businesses and with a steady stream of graduates in food and agriculture, benefits from a skilled local workforce of approximately 16,000 people (Source: Locate in Kent).
We recognised the need for a sustainable, well-connected property that would give us the opportunity to build and improve operations for our customers across London, the South East and further afield. Goodman’s Crossways 138 was the ideal choice, blending a strategic location with a high-quality facility. This will support our mission to deliver greater operational efficiency and provide best-in-class customer service.
The warehouse, with capacity for up to 15,500 pallet spaces, enables the business to hold more stock, grow its product range, and pick, pack and load orders more accurately. An additional mezzanine level provides a dedicated space for the company to scale up its pre-prepared food offering, while a demonstration kitchen is where new products are tested and showcased to customers.Open-plan offices support collaboration and the staff café offers freshly cooked food from breakfast through to dinner. These areas are a great way of connecting people during their working day.
The highly sustainable facility has been developed to a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ specification and achieved an A+ energy performance rating, with a full rooftop of solar photovoltaics helping to offset some of the building’s energy usage. A specialist carbon-neutral cladding system provides optimal environmental conditions to store a range of products and supports temperature-controlled storage.
Sustainability features include:
- 1,036kWp solar PV system generating 905,900kWh of renewable energy each year
- Innovative SolarWall® technology for heating the building’s office areas
- Solar thermal hot water
- Rainwater harvesting
- Electric vehicle (EV) charging points and infrastructure for future EV fleets.
Family and community are two important values for Albion Fine Foods and despite relocating from 30 miles away, the business has retained most of its staff. The new location offers great public transport links, with regular bus and train services, as well as opportunities for employees to make more sustainable choices of their own, such as walking or cycling to work.
Its focus on the local community has also seen it install an organic composter for food waste, such as vegetable peelings from its production kitchens. Once compacted, the pellets can be used in wood burners as clean fuel and will be given away locally to those experiencing fuel poverty.
