Caunton supplied the steelwork for what Tim Steiner, the chief executive of Ocado, has called one of the “world’s biggest grocery stores”. Caunton designed and supplied over 2,300 tonnes of steelwork to main contractor McLaren Construction at Erith, Kent for a Temperature Controlled Warehouse with ancillary buildings and offices. The developer is Bericote Properties and the project is funded by property investor Tritax Big Box REIT.

The building itself is a massive propped portal frame over 200 metres in span and over 250 metres long, with additional smaller units which include a main office, staff shop, a vehicle maintenance unit and a two storey plant room. The online grocery retailer, Ocado, will open this, their fourth distribution centre in the UK, in 2017, as it continues to benefit from strong demand in internet shopping. When operational, this Erith Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) will have the capacity to handle in excess of 200,000 orders per week.