Nottingham food trade specialist architects Cox Freeman unveils new branding and offers advice at Food & Drink Expo 2012

Architects from Nottingham-based company Cox Freeman Ltd will be highlighting the benefits of specialist early involvement in building projects when they exhibit at Food & Drink Expo 2012.

The firm specialises in buildings for the food and drink production industry, having worked for leading names in the business, including Premier Foods, Greggs, Heinz, Dairy Crest, Sun Valley Foods and Samworth Brothers.

Having recently introduced new branding, the company will be using Expo 2012 to promote its visualisation and modelling services which allow clients to see how a building will look and helps with the decision-making process.

“As a result of our experience and expertise, Cox Freeman can help food and drink manufacturers with a range of services from site finding and designing new buildings to adding extensions to existing facilities,” said director Culver Epps.

“When companies decide to build new premises, it’s a big capital investment, and the 3-D modelling or rendering visualisation service that we offer is an excellent way of helping them to see what the project will look like when complete and how their operations fit together.

“Food and Drink Expo attracts many food industry people, and we will be on hand to give advice to any that are planning to expand or build new premises. It’s an excellent place for us to showcase our services.”

Food & Drink Expo 2012, which runs at the NEC from March 25th to 27th, is one of the UK’s biggest food and drink trade events of the year, attracting more than 550 exhibitors and thousands of visitors. It brings together all sectors of the food and drink market, including retail, foodservice, wholesale and manufacturing, as well as associated industries.

As an architectural practice specialising in the design of food production facilities, Cox Freeman, based in Stoney Street, Nottingham, aims to showcase its expertise in building food grade premises.

The firm designed the units at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, which opened in 2005 and was the UK’s first food business park with a dedicated on-site business centre. It has also worked with many of the big food production companies across the UK.

For more than five years it has worked with Premier Foods at sites nationwide and in all sectors of the company’s business.

Cox Freeman is currently working on a multi-million project in the south west, which is the extension of an existing food production facility.

Following the recent retirement of director Chris Boffin, who has been retained as a consultant, Cox Freeman is headed by directors Culver Epps and Alan McCall, with a team including architectural technologist Allan Smithson and associate Mike Webster, who lead the visualisation and technical operations respectively.

Cox Freeman’s stand at Food & Drink Expo 2012 is M173.

For more information visit www.coxfreeman.com or follow on Twitter @CoxFreeman

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Major food companies hire Nottingham architects Cox Freeman for key projects

Nottingham architects Cox Freeman have been cooking up new premises for some of the biggest names in the food sector.

Work is now being completed on the 22,000 sq ft refurbishment of a pizza manufacturing unit for Northern Foods at Lenton Lane, Nottingham.

Work is also due to be finished in early summer on an extension and refurbishment for Samworth Brothers at Bradgate Bakery in Leicester.

Meanwhile, planning permission has recently been granted for a 85,000 sq ft development for bakery giant Greggs in Wiltshire, while a major 75,000 sq ft extension and refurbishment for Greggs in Newcastle is currently underway.

All four schemes were designed by Cox Freeman, which is based in Stoney Street in The Lace Market, and is a leading specialist in the food and associated process industries.

The Newcastle Greggs scheme followed a similar project for the bakery company in Manchester completed in 2009, which was also designed by Cox Freeman.

“We are very pleased to be actively working with a number of major operators in the food and drink sector on a range of projects,” said managing director Chris Boffin.

“Our expertise in this specialist field, where hygiene and healthcare are paramount, has been honed over many years, and these contracts follow earlier work with all three companies. “

Cox Freeman has strengthened its management team in recent times with the appointment of Michael Chrich, Mike Webster and Paul Roberts as associates.

The company, which was established in 1980, works across many sectors including food and drink, education, commercial centres and on private residential projects.

(The accompanying image shows the completed Greggs scheme in Manchester).

www.coxfreeman.com

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Bakery designed by Nottingham architect Cox Freeman rises to the top

A bakery designed by specialist food and drink sector architect Cox Freeman has been named as one of the top 50 buildings built in the East Midlands in the last 50 years.

Pork Farms’ Riverside Bakery was the only building from the 1980s in Nottinghamshire and one of only four from the decade in the region as a whole to make it onto the list compiled by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Built on a brownfield site on the north bank of the River Trent two miles from Nottingham city centre, the building was commissioned by Northern Foods as a factory for producing pork pies and pastries.

When it was opened in 1982 it was regarded as one of the most modern in Europe in design, construction and its ability to comply with stringent EEC regulations for food processing.

“At Cox Freeman, we’re absolutely thrilled that Pork Farms’ Riverside Bakery designed by the company almost 30 years ago has been hailed as one of the top 50 buildings built in the East Midlands over the past 50 years, “ said Chris Boffin, managing director of Cox Freeman, based in Stoney Street in The Lace Market, Nottingham.

“It’s a tremendous accolade to be named on the list, and especially to be one of only a handful of buildings from the 1980s to be chosen. The building was inventive because of its clear span production floor and plant room located within the roof structure. This improved its flexibility and enabled routine maintenance to take place with minimal disruption to the production process.

“The innovation was made possible by the use of modular CUBIC Space Frame roof supported on twelve braced columns around the perimeter with only three internal columns. “

The ‘fifty buildings, 50 years’ project celebrated great modern architecture in the East Midlands over the past five decades, and marked the 50th anniversary of RIBA in the region.

The chosen buildings form the subject of a major exhibition from RIBA that showcases innovative and enduring architecture from the ‘swinging sixties’ onwards. It reveals how architectural creativity is shaped by context, place, culture, social and political trends of the time and, in turn, shapes the identity of the region’s places and spaces. It is being exhibited across the East Midlands over coming months. For details of venues visit the regions’ section of www.architecture.com

Choosing 50 exemplary buildings from 50 years was ‘an incredibly challenging project’ said Nottinghamshire architect Hannah Minton, who chaired the steering group which carried out the intensive short-listing process.

Cox Freeman is a leading specialist in the food and associated process industries, where hygiene and healthcare are essential. The firm has worked for almost every key player in the food sector.

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Architects Cox Freeman help create a multi-use church in Ripley

Nottingham-based architects Cox Freeman have helped a Derbyshire church become a hub of activity after managing a complete rebuild of the community facility.

The £595,000 project for Ripley Methodist Church involved demolishing the existing Victorian building and creating a new church and multi-purpose community centre.

The two-storey facility has now been officially opened and is home to a string of community groups for all ages, as well as the church congregation.

“We are delighted to hear that Ripley Methodist Church has become such an important focus in the community,” said Chris Boffin, managing director of Cox Freeman, based in Stoney Street, The Lace Market. “This has been the third church project that Cox Freeman has been involved in, and one that gave us immense pride to work on.”

Using plans originally drawn up by the Nottingham-based Howitt Partnership, Cox Freeman oversaw the project from tender to completion.

“It was a difficult site access wise, as the church was down a narrow road, surrounded by houses, but the project went very smoothly and we are very pleased to have been a part of it. It gives us great satisfaction to be involved in community schemes such as this, which are becoming something of a speciality for us,” added Chris Boffin.

Ripley Methodist Church bookings secretary Brian Rose said a wide range of community groups were now using the church, including a mother and toddler group, a friendship circle for retired people, and exercise and slimming groups. It was also being used for bingo sessions, demonstration evenings and parties - with bookings already being made as far in advance as October.

“We are very pleased with the building, which is being used by several different community groups and is being booked by a number of different agencies and organisations,” said Brian.

The project, which has been the result of several years of planning and consultation between the church and existing and potential users of the building, has created 366m² of space on the ground floor and 58m² of space on the first floor.

Facilities at the Wood Street church include a community hall, rooms and a modern kitchen.

Nottingham architects Cox Freeman turn the spotlight on energy-saving buildings

Nottingham architects Cox Freeman are highlighting how food and drink firms can save money and reduce their environmental impact through the latest building designs while the company exhibits at Food & Drink Expo 2010 this week.

At the trade show, Cox Freeman are turning the spotlight on ways that firms in the sector can incorporate energy-saving devices and designs into new and existing buildings, which will ultimately make them more energy efficient and create significant savings in fuel bills.

All non-domestic buildings will need a net zero CO₂ rating by 2019 – and now is the time to plan ahead, says Cox Freeman director Alan McCall.

“High levels of energy consumption in the food industry means that significant savings in annual fuel bills can be realised by using renewable and low carbon energy initiatives in conjunction with intelligent building design,” said Alan.

“High initial capital costs and long payback periods have previously discouraged their inclusion within building budgets but increasing levels of uptake mean that costs are continuing to fall, and this is the message that we aim to get across during Food & Drink Expo 2010.”

Cox Freeman is one of more than 600 firms exhibiting at Food & Drink Expo 2010, which takes place at the NEC, Birmingham, from March 21st to 24th. It is the largest UK food and drink trade exhibition - bringing together all sectors of the food and drink market, including retail, foodservice, wholesale and manufacturing, as well as associated industries.

Cox Freeman, based in Stoney Street, Nottingham, is an architectural practice specialising in the design of food production facilities and has worked for leading names in the industry, including Heinz, Dairy Crest, Sun Valley Foods and Melton Foods. The firm designed the units at Southglade Food Park, Nottingham, which opened in 2005 and was the UK’s first food business park with a dedicated on-site business centre.

“Food & Drink Expo 2010 is the perfect opportunity for Cox Freeman to explain to food processors and producers looking to invest in new buildings how the inclusion of energy-saving solutions and the careful consideration of building orientation and site layout are important when planning new facilities,” said Alan.

“Cox Freeman are committed to the incorporation of renewable and low carbon energy solutions into all of their buildings in the food sector, and to finding effective architectural solutions to complement and enhance energy initiatives.

“Whether the most appropriate energy solution involves the inclusion of waste to energy plant, energy reclamation from fridge plant, ground source heat pumps for simultaneous heating and cooling, combined heat and power plant, photovoltaics, wind turbines or biofuels, the design of a building can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the system.”

Cox Freeman is at stand N168 at Food & Drink Expo 2010.