The Alzheimer’s Society were based near to St. Katherine’s Dock in central London and due to their lease expiring and the building was going to be redeveloped as we under stood for residential, they had no choice but to relocate.
We first became involved back in early 2016 when we were asked to undertake a survey of their existing office furniture to see if it was worth moving and reusing, quite understandable as they are one of the UK’s largest charities and cost was important. However, after providing our survey, they decided that it was not worthwhile reusing as it was quite old. Having found a new office in Crutched Friars London EC3. Architects were appointed for the fit out and provide schemes for new furniture. We were one of three asked to tender based on the Architects specifications and it became apparent that the scheme was far in excess of the budget that was available. However, we were also asked to provide and alternative scheme and we partnered with Balma UK and were successful saving over £100,000 over the Architects scheme.
Balma Poland being the factory had just launched a new product called PLUS which provide not only a flexible bench system with excellent cable management with fixed or sliding tops( sliding tops were selected) but an extremely strong under frame which can be reconfigured easily and will stand the test of time. A number of sit stand electric desks were incorporated into the scheme. Also, it offers as there other ranges do, a wide range of top finishes and leg frame colours which are supplied at no extra cost, so all standard!
In conjunction with PLUS they had a good storage system and meeting/ boardroom tables to match so we suit the furniture through. They also provided all the soft furnishing, meeting booths and meeting chairs so we were able to offer a one stop shop from one manufacture. It was decided that they would stick to the Architects scheme for fabric although it was change from Kadvadrat fabric to Camira to save on cost but still there were about 30 different fabric colour ways/ combinations and fabric type but it did not phase Balma.
We were also asked to provide a special bank of security lockers with combination locks which again the factory produced at a reasonable cost which was unexpected as most manufacturers hike the price for specials but Balma are always happy to provide specials as it is all produced in-house including the metal work.
We under took the installation out of hours due to the nature of access and narrow street etc. and one can imagine there were several large 40 foot Lorries turning up that had to be off loaded and product take up to the 2nd floor, unwrapped, laid out ready for the start of the installation which was completed in 2 weeks. Having completed the installation we were charged with the task of emptying out their old office and disposing of the furniture which was mainly recycled and nothing went to land fill and again based on the other quotes provide we managed to save the client several thousand pounds and completed it on time.
