Customer: Royal Agricultural College

Location: Gloucestershire

Requirement: With a raft of national initiatives - spearheaded by well-known TV chefs - encouraging people to eat more healthily and source food locally, the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester identified a need for a dedicated training resource for anyone involved in the food supply chain. Therefore, a new building was needed to house a full commercial training kitchen and associated facilities.

Solution: Graham Barton, Estates Manager at the college, says: "Due to the amount of building work and infrastructure development going on at the college, we didn't want to build a permanent food training facility in bricks and mortar that might create logistical problems as the site was developed around it. However, we urgently needed the new food training centre, so we decided on a modular building to fulfil our needs for the next five to ten years. We identified a beautiful location within the grounds and set about looking for a suitable building supplier.

"Portakabin was one of the leading contenders because of its reputation in the modular building market. We were up against a particularly tight planning deadline, so we needed assurances that the building would be delivered on time. The Portakabin on-time delivery guarantee gave us full confidence that the company could meet our timescales. This, combined with the quality of its buildings, made Portakabin our first choice."

Portakabin has a unique Customer Charter, which promises that all buildings will be delivered on time and on budget. For complete peace of mind, Portakabin even promises that if it ever fails to meet the customer's contract start date, it will provide an additional 12 months' product warranty, free of charge.*

The Royal Agricultural College chose the Portakabin Ultima modular building system to create its new food training centre. This superior building system offers an exceptional quality working environment and high levels of thermal efficiency for year-round comfort and reduced energy costs.

Portakabin designed a bespoke building to fulfil the college's requirements, featuring a central reception area, toilets and changing rooms, a large training classroom and a spacious room to house the commercial training kitchen. An air-conditioning system was fitted and the kitchen room was enhanced with a reinforced floor and vents in the roof for the large extractor fans required. 

The building was delivered on the agreed date and installed in a single day by the Portakabin team. It was fitted out and completed ready for the start of the new term.

Graham Barton adds: "The installation was faultless. The on-site team were excellent and the building was very quickly and efficiently installed. The building has a clean, aesthetic look that is perfect for a commercial kitchen environment. We are very happy with it and the training centre has been well received by staff and students alike."

* Terms and Conditions apply. A copy is available on request.