Morvan Trading new warehouse

Breaking ground: work starts February 2026

Work starts

We ran out of effective storage space several years ago, which meant actively managing our square footage as a scarce commodity. This meant regularly reorganising our stock to make use of the space more efficient, storing pallets with our freight company, and juggling shipping container deliveries. Thankfully this is now at an end (at least for now).

The work was undertaken by large project specialists E.D.&W. Bodman Ltd, who were 100% proficient and professional. This included a variety of different jobs.

Two new flint concrete pads were poured, one in front of each warehouse, to make loading and unloading lorries and containers easier and cleaner, especially in the rain.

The exterior fibre cladding has been replaced with green powder-coated steel, making the units more secure, as has the installation of two modern personnel doors. The large (and very heavy) sliding doors have been replaced with a pair of motorised roller shutters. The overall effect looks more uniform and is much smarter.

Concrete pad 1

The largest improvement was in our second warehouse which holds the high volume items. This had steel internal walls in a Greek Key meander pattern, which have now been disassembled and removed. We have gained only a little floor space, but in reality this translates to a notable increase in both useable area and manœuvring space.

A hidden improvement was the digging of a new soakaway to future-proof our rainwater drainage.

Inside view – during

Developments

We also had some small improvements to the concrete floor surface, filling and grinding to make it smoother, plus the addition of an extra row of LED overhead lights. For safety the vertical pillars have been painted a nice high-visibility orange. The roofing sheets were renewed where necessary and the clear panels cleaned to provide more natural light.

Before

New warehouse

Despite covering each pallet with plastic shrink wrap and a cardboard lid, we still spent a lot of time with an industrial vacuum cleaner to pick up the dust.

It did also mean organising then progressively rearranging our 250+ pallets as the work took place around them. The only casualty was one pallet shipped a day late as it was trapped behind wet concrete. In all, this is more than reasonable in the circumstances and could have been much worse.

We were concerned about our resident barn owl (Tyto alba), but it seems to have slept undisturbed through the works. With patience and a bit of luck it can still be seen occasionally, but we have yet to get a decent photo. See the Barn Owl Trust website for more information on this distinctive yet shy bird.

Container unloading 1

Warehouse renovations

As a positive, the extra space in our ‘new’ warehouse means we can now store our pallets in a more logical fashion, e.g. with gaps ready for new deliveries. Subsequently our warehouse staff can spend less time rotating stock for FIFO (first in, first out), and it also makes packing larger orders slightly quicker.

As a result we have increased our stock holding, importing the same parts in larger quantity but less often. This is in order to benefit from volume discounts from the factory, which will help offset some of the price rises we have seen this year in raw materials (copper) and transportation (oil).

We can also use this extra space to store customer call-offs; please get in touch to discuss stocking arrangements of larger quantities or special spec.