New Café - Larch Barn
Client Name:
New Larch Barn Café
Site Location & Department:
Cleobury Mortimer
Date of Project:
Winter 2018
Project Leader:
Mike Nixon
Project Summary:
To design, supply and install a brand new garden centre café with kitchen
Services Used
Facing Issues Before Abraxas…
What were the problems with the existing equipment. What challenges did the problems create?
No commercial kitchen or café existed this was a new project to create a retail garden centre café for a wholesale plant centre located in a rural area of South Shropshire
How did you hear about Abraxas?
Local Research
The Abraxas Solution
What did Abraxas suggest?
Following a survey and measure of an empty space within the existing Landscape Plants offices Abraxas created a design concept from scratch A new commercial kitchen with an extraction canopy, all electric equipment with eco friendly induction, dishwashing and refrigeration. A café servery area with shop fit units, Integral refrigerated cake display, Corian work surfaces and metro tiled wall surfaces, this allowed the colour scheme to be chosen to compliment the fantastic vistas.
What recommendations / solutions did we make?
Initially the kitchen and servery was to be located in a new building being erected Abraxas suggested it be installed in the existing building where visitors would enter first and see the food and patisserie displays, it would also allow the new build to be exclusively used for seating which would allow future use as an exclusive use meeting/dining space.
What was the process?
Timeframe Initial plan and quotations were compiled in Autumn 2017 for Landscape plants to submit rural development grant, this grant was approved in Winter 2018 and install and commissioning took place almost immediately with completion in early May 2018
The Project Installation
What did we do?
Following a programme meeting we asked for the client’s building contractor to install the partitions to create the kitchen area, we then installed the kitchen ventilation, flooring and then kitchen equipment, our counter contractors then attended to install the Corian counters and wall finishes, we then completed with installing the café display equipment, coffee machine and counter equipment a full commissioning then took place along with staff training.
How long did the process take?
Completed over a programme of 3 weeks, we weren’t on site continually for that period but we worked in partnership with the client’s main contractor to install the varying components at a time to suit
What issues did we face?
Initially no mains electric existed on site, the offices and existing plant centre were powered from generators which switched off at 5pm, they also couldn’t cope with the increased capacity of the kitchen so it was a challenge to run equipment up for testing without causing issues to the generators. As part of the project Mains electricity was brought onto the site early Spring 2018. Given its rural location the harsh winter weather including freezing temps and snow made access difficult and working conditions uncomfortable
How many staff on the job?
3 Abraxas engineers, 2 shopfit contractors, 1 project manager
The Benefits to the Company
How has Abraxas made an impact to the company?
Completed the install of a new now busy café facility helping Landscape Plants expand their business and employ more people, Abraxas provided advice to the owners as they initially had very little experience of a catering operation and equipment