Introduction

Bluestones One successfully tendered for B&Q’s Store Closure Programme and was subsequently awarded 6 stores to close over a 12-month period.

The scope of work was to completely empty the store of everything from the floor to the lights. Works included full racking removal, electric, gas and water isolation, checkout extraction, and removing the furniture and fittings from the offices and warehouse.

It started in Sutton…

The B&Q store in Sutton was a two-floor, 180,000 square-foot unit, and was our first opportunity to showcase our capabilities. We successfully delivered the project on time and within budget, completely emptying the store in just five weeks.

Logistics

One of our highly skilled Site Managers controlled the site operations for the duration of the project. During this period the Bluestones One team worked tirelessly to ensure the store was ready to hand over to the landlord on time and to an excellent standard.

Working five days a week, our team completed the strip out within five weeks. With a team of 14 Installers, one Forklift Driver, and one Site Manager, it took just 3,980 hours to complete the entire project.

We coordinated the collection of 1019 pallets of equipment, which went back to B&Q’s distribution centre on 64 HGVs, and we successfully recycled 4,520kg of mixed waste using our recycling partner.

Overcoming challenges

Having never undertaken a store closure of this scale before, the main challenges arose from the unknown elements, ranging from basic things such as ensuring we had enough pallets to stack the equipment on, to dealing with site security and coordinating with all the various parties involved in the project. This included B&Q and their suppliers, such as Transport, Project Managers, Property Managers, Data, Marketing, Security and many more departments within B&Q. This was considered to have been well managed, and we are already working with all of these suppliers and contacts on the next store.

Positive feedback and future collaboration

There was a great sense of achievement on completion/handover day, looking at what we\’d delivered. Knowing all the hard work had paid off was fantastic. The whole team were so pleased with the result, they didn\’t want to leave, but their job was done to an excellent standard.

Get in touch

Bluestones One now looks forward to starting their next store closure and will take some significant learning and experience from B&Q Sutton.

For more information about the comprehensive services offered by Bluestones One, please reach out to us at [email protected].