Purlins – Retail Edge, Basildon

E-commerce distribution facilities in Essex.

voestalpine Metsec’s Purlins Division has supplied purlins and associated side rails, diagonal tie wires and rafter stays for the construction of two new storage and distribution units at the Burt Mills industrial estate in Basildon, Essex.

The units have been erected by local steel structures specialists, Steelcraft UK Ltd. for Retail Edge, a leading e-commerce logistics company which provides order fulfilment services for some of the country’s leading e-commerce channels, including Amazon, eBay and Shopify.

Located on a site previously occupied by two older, redundant units, the new facilities provide more than 4500 m2 of space. Each of the new units measures 22 m x 70 m and provides 1540 m2 of space. This has been almost doubled in one of the units by the addition of mezzanine decks on two floors.

Working from architect’s plans supplied by the client, Steelcraft UK Ltd’s structural engineers created working drawings from which the fabrication details and arrangements were produced, with demolition of two existing buildings and construction of the new units being scheduled in two phases over a five-month period.