Oddies Textiles

With over 30 years expertise in providing high quality UK storage and racking solutions to our clients, WP Group are recognised specialists in the design, specification and installation of warehouse storage and racking solutions for sites across the British Isles. Each individually designed storage systems is planned to suit each client’s unique operating environment taking account of the goods being handled, the size and layout of their storage facility, making it easier for you to maximise the efficiency of your facility. Once the installation is complete, our aftermarket service provides a full range inspection, repair, replacement services and can be used to modify your layout as your business grows and requires changes to your existing layout. As Internationally recognised importers, exporter and wholesalers of fabrics to all areas of the UK textile industry; Oddies stock over 200 regular lines of fabric consisting of 300+ print designs, consisting of thousands of fast and slow-moving textile rolls. This presents a major logistics challenge, storing and handling so many individual items, whilst maximising the use of their warehouse space. The WP Group have supported the growing and changing needs of the business for many years, providing a wide range of warehouse racking and storage solutions. Products Installed: over some 15 years, WP Group have installed a variety of storage solutions, including Fabric racks, pallet racks and Mezzanine flooring to greatly increase the original storage area of Oddies warehouse. The Brief: Mezzanine Floor Solution with Integrated Fabric Racking Oddies asked WP to replace an existing mezzanine floor, with a purpose-built replacement Mezzanine containing integrated fabric racks to create a heavy duty, high density upper level storage area capable of holding 5,000 kg. per storage bay. A further requirement was to install this over and around existing ground floor fabric racks that were in continuous use. In addition, WP were challenged to design a solution to reduce ‘Lifecycle’ costs of ongoing maintenance and repair of the new installation and maximise available storage space. The age of the building provided a further challenge, as the maximum height of the room changed in different areas of the building. The Solution: The WP Group solution successfully met and exceeded the design brief, by addressing the challenges of the project requirements in several individual areas; Design Ingenuity & Lifecycle Costs Integrated fabric racks were specified using Galvatite steel decks, to provide a strong, ultra-smooth, surface; ensuring no snagging or tearing of any fabric being stored. The corrosion proof Galvatite decks also eliminated bowing or bending that would normally occur from placing heavy duty fabrics on traditional wooden decks, Load Capacity The WP Group design specified that the fabric racks were inserted into purpose built steel channels which spread load distribution evenly along the racks (unlike racks fixed on baseplates) thus eliminating point loads in individual areas. In order to maximise storage capacity of the racks, the racking uprights were each individually sized throughout the building to follow the uneven contours of the entire warehouse roof. Safety The whole project was designed to achieve minimum 1 hour fire protection, in accordance with UK building standards; and the whole installation was designed so that the new mezzanine support columns were position inside the existing ground floor racks to safely avoid interfering with the working aisles below. Safe transfer of fabrics from the Mezzanine to ground level was ensured by installation of an ‘Up and Over’ pallet gate, which creates a physical safety guard around the loading area of the mezzanine, and then a guard separating the operator from the pallet once it has been loaded to the pallet gate ready for removal from the Mezzanine.