Pickfords Business Solutions recently worked with Covent Garden Flower Market to transport tens of thousands of plants, flowers and sundries to a new Flower Market location in Nine Elms.
Covent Garden Flower Market is the largest wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market in the UK and supplies 75% of London’s florists with an extensive range of products for resale.
Following a number of recent, successful collaborations with the leading facilities management company, VINCI Facilities, Pickfords was appointed to manage this challenging relocation project.
A detailed six week planning process was created to ensure minimum disruption to their trading & commercial businesses during the transition. Pickfords created and executed a move plan to transfer each of the 40 wholesaler’s units on a precise time and date to ensure completion ahead of the new market opening.
Vinci engaged Pat Hughes from Pickfords Business Solutions to create the methodology and move plan to move racking, equipment and stock to the new market location over a three day period. Pat ensured that his highest priority was understanding the individual concerns and business practices of each of the wholesalers. He held weekly meetings with the wholesalers to construct a plan to ensure that disruption was minimised.
Up to 110 Pickfords crewmembers and 17 vehicles worked on site each day to ensure a successful relocation.
Tailored move plans were created for plants of unusual size or shape to protect against damage, including the use of specially made trolleys for certain exotic species.
Martin Budd, Head of Business Solutions at Pickfords, said “It was a pleasure to be part of the relocation of the market and to be there to hear them ring the bell to close the market for the last time after 40 years.
My thanks to our project team, VINCI and the Flower Market for all their hard work, ensuring this project was a complete success.”
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Pictured: left: Martin Budd, Head of Business Solutions at Pickfords; right: Pat Hughes, Technical Sales Manager at Pickfords
About Pickfords
Established for nearly 400 years, the Pickfords brand is the UK’s leading name in home moving and storage. Pickfords has a national network of branches throughout the UK and Ireland and moves more than 250,000 people every year.
Pickfords provides a complete portfolio of moving and storage services including; home moving within the UK and overseas, business moving, environmental recycling of office furniture, employee moving, storage, small moves and packing materials. These services are provided to a diverse range of clients including consumers, corporate accounts and government departments.
Pickfords’ international network has over 600 offices in 45 countries.
