We are designers and manufacturers of steel shelving and storage and can offer complete bespoke solutions for your projects. For more information on our bespoke service, call 0121 508 5877
Custom Shelving
As manufacturers, we can design and build custom shelving solutions for your project.
Mezzanine Floors
Make your space work for you. Mezzanine floors from ShelvingDirect are a great way to save space and improve productivity.
Roller Racking
Mobile shelving eliminates the need for fixed aisles whilst retaining full accessibility to all shelves of stored product.
Pallet Racking
ShelvingDirect can specify and supply pallet racking for projects of all sizes, from small warehouses to large distribution hubs.
Steel Partitioning
Steel partitioning is used predominantly in factory and warehouse environments, to divide areas within the workplace.
Conservation & Archive Boxes
Made from specialist acid-free archival board, we manufacture a wide range of conservation archive and storage boxes.
Space Planning & Consultancy
We have extensive experience in helping our customers make the most of their available space.
We install UK-wide
We have an expert team of installers and fitters ready to help put the finishing touches to your project.
ShelvingDirect was asked if we could supply lockers at short notice to be used on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. We were delighted to be able to help, by manufacturing and delivering the lockers within two working days. The lockers were delivered to the props department where they were accessorised with stickers and photographs of the two dancers, as well as rope lights between the units.
We supplied two nests of three standard lockers and two specially-designed larger lockers without backs to enable the performers to dance through them. Both the body and doors of the locker were painted with a black powder coated finish. Our standard range of lockers is 1950mmm high and includes a sloping top, and they are available in 305mm, 380mm and 460mm widths with the depths ranging from 305mm–460mm.
As manufacturers with a 50,000sq ft production facility based in Birmingham, we are able to supply bespoke solutions if one of our standard products won’t meet the requirement. Within our large range of in-house products, we are able to make bespoke size lockers, shelving, mobile shelving, plan chests and mezzanine floors.
For help and advice on storage solutions of all kinds, please contact ShelvingDirect on 0121 508 5877. Email [email protected]
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Mobile Shelving
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission system of record storage was outdated and no longer fit for purpose. The ability for a supplier/contractor to both supply new shelving and be able to unload and store existing records during the upgrade was paramount. Ultimately, the records needed to be re located onto the newly installed shelving, without disruption to the day to day operations of the commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established in 1917 to commemorate the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the First and Second World Wars. The CWGC built and continues to maintain cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations in more than 150 countries and territories and is committed to carrying out this work in perpetuity. The foundation of the work of the CWGC rests on the historic documents and records that contain the details of the commemorated individuals and whilst a significant portion of the archive records have been digitised and stored off site, the majority of the archive and semi-current records remain securely stored at the CWGC Head Office.
The paper records were until recently stored in two main locations within a mix of secure static and mobile shelving systems thought to be approximately 40 years old that had over the years been moved within the building and were suffering with operational problems and the CWGC took the decision to seek replacement systems that offer up-to-date technology along with improved space planning and additional capacity for future expansion – such that their significant, UNESCO recognised, historic collection could be better managed and preserved for future generations.
A competitive tender process was issued through the Crown Commercial Service framework in November 2020 and as a long-standing member of the framework Rotadex attended a meeting to discuss the project with the CWGC. One of the major points of discussion was the decanting of the existing shelving, secure storage of the records for the duration of the project and their re-loading onto the new shelving at the end of the installation works.
The three existing static and mobile shelving systems had an overall capacity of 1108 linear metres of storage housing lateral filing, on-shelf files, boxed archive material, individual volumes and larger 3D objects to consider. Rotadex proposed that with the use of some adjacent secure office spaces the simplest and securest solution would be to store all items within the Head Office building on a system-by-system basis for the duration of the works, with the decanting and re-loading carried out by experienced Rotadex personnel to provide a complete service for the works.
THE SOLUTION Following evaluation of the tenders received Rotadex were awarded the contract in late December 2020 with project coordination meetings with CWGC in January 2021 and a commencement of the works in mid-February with an 8 week duration. The three existing systems were emptied one-at-a-time, dismantled, removed for recycling and disposal, whilst the new systems installed and re-loaded. One of the existing systems being 50% static shelving, when changed to all mobile shelving to improve the usage of the footprint enabled the overall capacity to increase to 1369 linear metres gaining an additional 260 linear metres of expansion for future growth of the archives.
To meet the specification provided within the Crown Commercial Service tender documentation Rotadex proposed the use of our Fineline steel uprights with clip adjustable steel shelves, mounted to mobile and static bases with covers to conceal the drive mechanisms. The units run on steel tracks with a non-slip coated floor infill between the rails to eliminate any trip hazards. This enables the use of filing trollies within the system aisles if required. A slight incline access ramp along the leading edge of each system, provides easy access. Each shelving unit has A4 clear Perspex sign holders for identification. The system is finished in epoxy powder coated RAL 9003 (signal white) to enhance the existing room lighting.
THE RESULT The CWGC was able to consolidate their existing storage as well as creating additional capacity. We were able to enhance access to the existing records, without interruption to the daily work flow.
Chief Archivist Andrew Fetherston said: “Following a competitive tendering process, Rotadex were awarded the contract to replace a mixture of mobile and static shelving which housed the archive of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at its head office in Maidenhead. As the work was carried out during the coronavirus pandemic, special measures had to be put in place regarding working conditions and access, and Rotadex were happy to work with us to develop an approach which worked for all concerned. Their team carefully decanted all of the collection, storing it in temporary shelving which they had erected onsite for that purpose, and professionally dismantled and disposed of the existing shelving, and installed the new units in a quick and efficient manner.”
“We were really impressed with how the Rotadex team planned, managed and executed this work. The work involved, which could have been quite a logistical challenge, actually ran very smoothly due to their efforts, and we were very pleased with the end results, which will help us safely store our collections for the future.”
For help and advice on storage solutions for archives and libraries, please contact ShelvingDirect on 0121 508 5877. Email [email protected]
Cambridgeshire Archives Roller Racking and Plan Chests
Cambridgeshire Archives recently relocated from Shire Hall, Cambridge to its new home at The Dock, Ely and opened to the public once more at the end of 2019. The £5.3M Archives project followed a National Archives’ assessment of the Shire Hall basement accommodation, leading to the redevelopment of the former Strikes Bowling Alley.
The interior of the existing building was completely removed and the existing ground floor raised by one metre, with reinforced concrete to add strength and new interior walls to provide storage vaults and staff and public accommodation. The archive vaults incorporated new mechanical and electrical services (to ensure the correct environmental conditions for the archived documents), new lighting and zoned sprinklers for fire protection.
The archive – which conforms to BS4971:2017 recommendations – houses in excess of 850 tons of historical documents stored on more than seven miles of mobile and static shelving, plan-chests and rolled maps storage units. Mobile shelving is principally used in order to ensure that the available floor space – and height – is fully maximised.
The archive contains a wide variety of stored items from records of the County Council, original maps, records of parish churches, business and other authorities – along with parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. The Ely facilities also include meeting rooms for the public to have appointments with registration staff, and a Search Room for using the stored documents.
THE SOLUTION The Archive contains a wide variety of items which required the shelving to be equipped with a range of accessories. These included vertical full height dividers to keep items within the collection in a vertical position, pull out reference shelves to facilitate easy handling and removal, and A4 signage holders for location identification. There are a variety of shelf depths from 400mm to 1000mm. A0 and A1 plans, as well as larger flat items, are housed in 15 stacks of plan chests with rolled materials stored on 120 metres of specially designed shelving. The Search Room includes perimeter Mondrian library book shelving with American cherry veneer joinery cladding to match the furniture in the room. There are also three vertical map storage units located in this room.
Following a competitive tender process, Rotadex (ShelvingDirect) was selected to design, manufacture and install all of the storage systems throughout the Vaults and Search Room. We consulted and worked closely with Cambridgeshire Archives, project architects Atkins Global, and main contractor Coulson Building Group. This enabled the storage systems installation to be completed on time and within budget.
THE RESULT “We found Rotadex (ShelvingDirect) to be a very constructive and helpful supplier throughout the entire project. Rotadex always engaged fully with us from the initial design stage right through to completion, to deliver exactly the storage that we required, and we are looking forward to many years’ successful operation of our new storage system.” – Alan Akeroyd, Archives Manager, Cambridgeshire Archives
For help and advice on storage solutions for archives and libraries, please contact ShelvingDirect on 0121 508 5877. Email [email protected]
Equipment lockers and steel storage solutions for Britain’s newest police station – a £29m HQ in Exeter
Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Devon and Cornwall, including the unitary authority areas of Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly.
THE REQUIREMENT
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) has ownership of the DCP force estate. After years in the planning the OPCC has funded a new state of the art hub which will be the operational home for Devon and Cornwall Police. Up to 500 officers whose duties range from community policing to major crime investigation will be based there.
The new Middlemoor HQ in Sidmouth Road, Exeter, is within the top 10 per cent of sustainable buildings in the country and replaces the dilapidated Heavitree Road Police Station which has been deemed no longer fit-for-purpose. The DCP HQ opened in April 2020.
Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall commented “This is a significant investment in the police estate and will help residents feel safer and better connected to the police.”
THE SOLUTION Following consultation between Rotadex’s product designers and DCP’s Property and Estates team, Rotadex produced product prototypes for critical review to ensure the equipment lockers met the operational needs of DCP. Five primary door colours were selected to create a fresh and modern changing room environment. As the construction phase neared completion, Rotadex carried out further site visits and consultations. These included individual room storage layouts and designs for property, equipment and specialist racking for the tactical firearms unit.
All products were designed and manufactured by Rotadex to the exact specification of Devon and Cornwall Police.
THE RESULT
A range of purpose-built storage solutions including equipment lockers, detained property shelving, weapons racking, police equipment racking and security containers have been planned, manufactured and installed helping to create a state of the art policing hub for Devon and Cornwall Police.
For help and advice on our storage solutions, please contact ShelvingDirect on 0121 508 5877. Email [email protected]
Timelapse of racking installation at Empiribox – Science Experiments for Schools, Abingdon-on-Thames
Empiribox is an innovative UK supplier of science equipment and teaching resources to UK primary schools. The company distributes pre-planned science lessons so that teachers have the tools at their fingertips to provide engaging and inspirational science. The Empiribox system means no more storing, purchasing or time spent lesson planning.
In June 2020, Empiribox moved to a new Customer Services and Distribution Centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. As part of the move, the company needed to source racking and shelving to help its expansion. ShelvingDirect’s Rax1 heavy duty shelving was selected as the most economical, sustainable and space-efficient shelving product for the new storage and distribution facility.
Rax1 shelving designed, manufactured, delivered and installed by Shelving Direct.
For help and advice on storage solutions for archives and libraries, please contact ShelvingDirect on 0121 508 5877. Email [email protected]
Set in a beautiful gothic church, Priory Post www.priorypost.co.uk is a new boutique post-production studio, offering the best-value professional film grading and client-attended editing in Central London. The facility has worked with the world’s biggest brands, agencies and record labels, and yet offers rates for its pro colourist and editor from just £35/hour. Customers enjoy the flexibility and economy of freelance but with the facilities and reliability of a major post-house – a revolutionary combination of affordability and excellence on any project.
THE REQUIREMENT With a vision for a new ultra-modern 8-K capable workflow edit suite and office design, Priory Post approached ShelvingDirect with exacting requirements. Working closely with a member of the ShelvingDirect customer services team, a design was agreed up and manufactured using ShelvingDirect’s Rax boltless shelving system. With a semi industrial/utilitarian theme, Priory Post requested a workbench on which it could edit its award winning pieces, a low level table to entertain visitors or discuss script and design requirements over a coffee, and storage units to complement the other designs.
THE SOLUTION Using a CAD system, a designer created a modern workspace that was long lasting and efficient. It was agreed that a mixture of medium and heavy duty Rax Galvanised shelving would be used as the base component, which would then be modified to meet the exact requirements.
Rax Shelving is made at the ShelvingDirect facility in Birmingham, using British steel. Unlike some competitor units, the frame work is a full 2mm thick, which adds to the overall strength and stability of the unit. Whilst normally height adjustable at 40mm increments, certain shelves on this project were manufactured to be static, at pre-designated heights. For this, the upright posts were reworked and punched only where a level would be located. The ease of construction of Rax allows it to be assembled and disassembled quickly and, in most cases, repurposed at a later date.
Rax 2 features a 30mm wide upright post, and depending on the width of unit can accommodate between 100kg (1500mm wide), 200kg (1200mm wide) or 300kg (900mm wide) uniformly distributed loads per shelf level on its folded steel shelves. These shelves sit within the support beams on all four sides, giving maximum strength. Rax 1 with its 50mm wide posts, has a uniformly distributed load of 500kg per shelf level.
THE CUSTOMER Bellman was founded in 1989 by the entrepreneur Peter Jungvid. The first product, a telephone ringer with different and enhanced ring tones for use in office environments, won a competition for new ideas in 1989 by the Swedish organization “Trygghetsrådet”. For fun, the project was named “Bellman” after the well-known Carl-Michael Bellman who wrote music for the Swedish King in the 18th century.
The company offers a number of products designed to help those who are hard of hearing or deaf, such as personal amplifiers to help people to hear conversation, or to amplify their television without making the sound louder for other listeners. They also offer a best-selling wireless smart home alerting system to make people with a hearing loss aware of sounds around the home, such as the doorbell sounding, smoke alarm activating or phone ringing.
The business and the product range have grown significantly over the last 30 years and Bellman & Symfon now supply products into more than 40 countries around the world and have offices in Sweden, the USA, China, Germany, Holland and the UK.
THE REQUIREMENT Bellman & Symfon UK Ltd wanted to set up a small UK sales office and warehouse to be able to sell, store and despatch its assistive technology equipment for deaf and hard of hearing people. Their new offices are in the former Tack Rooms of a converted, 19th century, farm estate building and they wanted something in keeping with the space, whilst at the same time being good quality and functional. They were also keen to have a clean, white, ‘office’ look that reflected their brand, rather than just warehouse racking.
THE SOLUTION Office Manager, Alison Woodrow, found ShelvingDirect via Google. After both written and telephone consultations with one of the Customer Services Team, the product “Rax Office” was selected.
Rax Office, although a budget range, is recognised for its functionality, aesthetics and durability. Finished in Signal White, it presents a clean and modern storage solution for all requirements and offers a uniform load, per shelf level, of a generous 200KG. Its boltless construction and easy to locate tabs makes it easy to adjust to the user’s specific needs.
Alison takes up the story “Shelving Direct honestly could not have been more helpful ensuring we got what was needed, that set-up was made simple with really helpful videos and aftercare second to none. Two man set-up would be ideal but one very short lady managed to get the shelves constructed and in place within a couple of days, we would definitely purchase more if we need to grow our store in the coming years.”
Bespoke Rax 1 and Rax 2 boltless shelving for Plato Catering
Plato is a ground breaking catering and event equipment hire company delivering 1.5 million items each year throughout Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and the West Midlands.
THE REQUIREMENT As a result of recent growth Plato is moving to new warehouse premises at Arden Industrial Estate in Alcester. In order to support its growth the company needed to design and fit efficient shelving systems for its new premises.
THE SOLUTION The company searched on line for a specialist storage solutions manufacturer and located ShelvingDirect. Following a site visit from a Storage Systems Consultant, ShelvingDirect designed a layout and recommended a product solution to meet Plato’s specific requirements. Plato selected a mix of ShelvingDirect’s Rax1 and Rax 2 painted heavy and medium duty hand-loaded shelving, all manufactured to a bespoke design, as pictured.
Rax 1 and Rax 2 shelving has been designed as a safe and robust means of providing hand-loaded storage for a variety of items such as catering utensils. Its boltless assembly makes it ideal for all types of light industrial and warehouse use. All the shelving was installed by ShelvingDirect and manufactured in the company’s 50,000 sq ft manufacturing facility which is equipped with the latest steel conversion equipment.
THE RESULT ShelvingDirect designed the layout, manufactured and installed all the shelving to order. The new warehouse now comprises 19 Rax 1 units each H2500 x W1200 x D900mm with 5 levels, and 5 Rax 2 units each H2000 x W1000 x D450mm with 9 levels. All supplied with bin fronts, solid backs and sides and finished in blue to provide the storage capacity to meet the demands of the growing business.
Lynn Kennedy, MD at Plato commented: “Thank you very much for the superb job you did on the shelving at Plato.”
For help and advice on storage solutions for agile work places please contact Matthew White 0121 508 5877 Email [email protected]
Established in 2000, Collectif Clothing is a specialist retailer of vintage clothing combining the latest fashion trends with classic vintage styles from the 40s and 50s.
THE REQUIREMENT As a result of recent growth, Collectif Clothing is moving to new warehouse premises at Sterling Industrial Estate in Dagenham, RM10. In order to support its growth, the company needed to design and fit an efficient storage solution as well as a pack and despatch area.
THE SOLUTION The company searched online for a specialist storage solutions manufacturer and found ShelvingDirect.co.uk. It requested a site visit from a ShelvingDirect’s Storage Systems Consultant, who designed a layout and recommended a product solution to meet the specific customer requirements. Collectif selected ShelvingDirect’s Rax1 Galvanised Heavy Duty hand-loaded shelving and workbenches. Rax 1 shelving has been designed as a safe and robust means of providing heavy duty hand-loaded storage. It’s galvanised anti-corrosion material makes it ideal for warehouse use. Rax 1 is manufactured in ShelvingDirect’s 50,000 sq ft manufacturing facility which is equipped with the latest steel conversion equipment. Rax 1 is made in Britain from British steel, and comes with a 10 year structural guarantee.
THE RESULT ShelvingDirect designed the layout, manufactured and installed all the shelving and workbenches to order. The new warehouse now comprises 73 bays of Rax 1 (H3000 x W2100 x D1200mm) and 14 Workbenches (H929 x W1500 x D900mm) providing the storage and packing capacity to meet the demands of the growing business.
Please contact us for client reference contact details.
For help and advice on storage solutions for agile work places please contact Matthew White 0121 508 5877 Email [email protected]
La Hacienda is a wholesale supplier of high-quality wood burning chimeneas, firepits, firebaskets and multi functional outdoor ovens to garden centres.
THE REQUIREMENT Based in old aircraft hanger in the Cotswolds, La Hacienda is growing its range of products and wholesale customers. In order to support its growth, the company needed to increase its storage capacity in its warehouse at Aston Down Airfield near Stroud.
THE SOLUTION The company searched online for a specialist storage solutions provider and invited ShelvingDirect to visit and provide an appropriate product solution. Following a site visit from a ShelvingDirect Storage Systems Consultant, ShelvingDirect provided a layout and recommended a product solution to meet La Hacienda’s budget and storage capacity requirements. La Hacienda selected the Rax 2 painted medium duty hand-loaded shelving with chipboard shelf decks to maximise storage capacity within a defined budget.
Rax 2 shelving has been designed as a cost effective means of providing quality hand loaded storage for a variety of items in light industrial and distribution environments. Its boltless assembly makes it ideal for light industrial and warehouse use. All the shelving was manufactured to a short lead time in ShelvingDirect’s 50,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, which is equipped with the latest steel conversion and powder coating equipment.
