Growing temperature control challenge

The last five years has seen a big ramp up in the size of warehouse projects tackled by HVAC firm Jet Environmental, says MD Jason Hibbs.

“We used to think a 250,000 sq ft building was quite big, now that’s middle ground size-wise. The major retailers, confectioners, and pharma companies to name a few have gone big. They're making huge investments and this is leading to greater cooling requirements.”

In fact, Jet Environmental is in the middle of one of its biggest projects to date. Nestlé is finishing off an enormous warehouse of more than 1 million sq ft in the East Midlands.

“The job we’re doing for Nestlé at East Midlands Airport is well over a million square feet and 35 metres high. Winvic is the main contractor and XPO Logistics is going to be the operator, with Swisslog taking care of the automation; and we're doing the temperature control. We've been onsite now for about a year and we are just coming to the end of it.”

The market has changed dramatically since the post recession trough of new build warehousing in the UK. Now big sheds are seemingly popping up everywhere, and logistics real estate assets are seen by the big beasts of the financial world as highly profitable cash cows to be hoarded. Recently, we saw the US financial firm Blackstone ink a record-breaking logistics property deal worth close to $20bn with GLP involving some 179 million sq ft of assets.

The modern world, and in particular, the demands of eCommerce have not just dramatically impacted the scale of warehousing, it has had a profound effect on the configuration of such property.

The modern warehouse is increasingly an airtight box that has a considerable cooling requirement. This is exacerbated by the fact that warehouses are now more likely than ever to feature large amount of automated equipment, and this has a knock-on effect on ventilation and temperature control within the facilities.

“The amount of IT, automation and robotics is definitely increasing,” says Jason.

“More automation tends to mean that they are a black box operation with very few operatives and no roof-lights. No roof-lights reduces solar gains, making an energy saving, but that is offset by the heat generated by machines.

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“We try to understand the amount of energy being consumed and the heat generated from equipment. It’s complex. The systems run at different speeds at peak times during the day and throughout the year. That’s where we have been successful because we understand logistics as well as HVAC.”

A large part of Jason’s CV comprises senior roles at leading 3PLs.

Jet Environmental’s ideal scenario is to have a conversation with the client, to understand how the warehouse operates and tailor the HVAC system to it. Jason says Jet is always looking for firms to partner with on major projects. There is often a sharp contrast in working with an end user client and working with a construction firm on a spec build.

"Priorities can be different and we have to be flexible in meeting the needs of both customer types.

“An end user who owns the warehouse and making the capital investment is usually heavily involved in the design process, wanting to know what he's going to get, how it's going to be maintained, how long it will last and how to maximise energy efficiency. We can offer a tailored bespoke proposal and really add value. The other sector is highly professional in it’s own right but the design is more prescriptive."

The relationships built through this consultative approach can come in handy. Contract changeover is a regular facet of the 3PL world. For example, the government recently awarded a £730m NHS logistics contract to Unipart Logistics ousting the incumbent DHL. Jet Environmental worked closely with DHL to manage the temperature control requirements of parts of the NHS’s very considerable logistics assets.

“DHL are a fantastic client to us, absolutely superb. Unipart won the contract last year; it's the single biggest pharma supply chain in the country and fortunately a lot of the people from DHL went over to Unipart under TUPE, the trust we have built over the years with our knowledge of the property portfolio has, I believe, helped the transition which we see as part of our role.

“The relationship we have with clients has grown significantly in recent years. We're consulted on a lot more areas and have become an integral part of the client organisation’s decision making," says Jason.

As we have seen with its work with the NHS, Pharma is one of the more important verticals for Jet Environmental, the sector is under tight regulatory pressure to keep temperatures within defined limits throughout the supply chain.

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"Pharmaceutical clients have been as much as 70% of our annual turnover, tackling controlled ambient zones. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the governing body, has tightened its storage temperature control requirement which is a critical requirement for attaining a distribution licence. That helped us because we built a reputation as the go-to Pharma temperature control firm."

The business is ever-evolving, says Jason, and the next step will be to incorporate weather prediction into the operational logic of Jet's systems that will allow them to better utilise nature, saving electricity and cost.

"We're looking at the next evolution in energy saving by using predictive analysis. For example, taking into account weather forecast data and altering our control philosophies proactively, rather than being reactive. If a distribution centre requires over a megawatt of cooling, then if we can make an energy saving of a few percent, that's definitely something you want to take."