Member Article

Sports Direct Contract Is Healthy For Leeds Engineering Firm

Leeds based Adept Civil and Structural Consulting Engineers has been appointed by construction giant ISG, to provide engineering services on a new megastore and fitness club in Glasgow, for the UK’s largest sports-goods retailer and several of its associated brands.

The vast three-storey unit, which will offer more than 180,000 sq ft of retail space, will be home to a major new Sports Direct store. It will also house luxury retailer Flannels, high street brand USC, and an Everlast Fitness Club, which are all owned by Sports Direct. As part of the work, a former retail unit on Glasgow’s Auchinlea Way is being completely reconfigured and extended, with Adept designing and overseeing the assembly of a substantial 450-tonne, three-storey steel frame within the building.

ISG is overseeing the circa £5million contract which will form a distinct retail space for each of the retail fascias. The striking design for the new unit includes a gullwing roof structure, extensive glazing and cladding panels, including distinctive coloured mosaic feature panels for the façade. The structural work is due to complete towards the end of the year, with the internal fit out starting early in 2018.

Erol Erturan, Managing Director of Adept, says: “Winning this contract is fantastic news for us, especially because it’s our first project in Scotland. It features a hugely impressive steel frame that is cantilevered over the existing foundations and the design includes a timber deck first floor mezzanine, which could easily be removed without having to make any structural changes to the building or its frame. This gives the entire unit a huge amount of flexibility, should its layout ever need to be changed in the future.”

Richard Oldfield, ISG’s Retail framework director, commented: “Sports Direct represents one of the UK’s most successful retail roll outs and the company’s focus on creating a house of brands for its new store designs is a key development for the business. The new Glasgow outlet brings a new gym concept – Everlast Fitness Clubs to Scotland, as well as the country’s second ever Flannels store. This is a key win for our business as we add Sports Direct to our client portfolio of the most influential global retail brands.”

Adept Consulting Engineers is a registered Approved Body with the Structural Engineers Registration (SER) scheme to review structural design for Scottish Building Regulation compliance for works. This work is carried out in accordance with in house QA procedures which are reviewed by SER to ensure the work is carried out to a suitably high standard.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Steven Wright .