Nestle owned an automated warehouse at Bardon in Leicestershire. Now some fifteen years old, it held a range of ambient food products. The site was operated for them by a Logistics Service Provider (LSP), and included within the outsourcing agreement was maintenance of the site. As part of the deal to sell the site to another LSP, Nestle wished to have a full condition survey undertaken to ensure that the site had been properly maintained and to indicate any remedial works necessary to bring the site to a condition commensurate with its age.

The Logistics Business were appointed as part of a larger team headed by Faithful & Gould to survey all of the automated materials handling equipment and systems including cranes, conveyors, racking and trucks. Other members of the team were responsible for the building and the mechanical and electrical systems. The survey followed on from a previous mid-contract survey by the same team.

As automated warehouses get older, good preventative maintenance becomes increasingly important and an independent condition survey carried out by specialists will confirm whether or not that has taken place.