Primark Brest

Challenges

The shell specification was agreed in 2017, and with the unprecedented rates of inflation experienced throughout the market, the cost for the project increase beyond expectations. The quantity surveyors were also replaced during the project, which could have been a smoother transition. The project began during COVID and travel restrictions which meant that attending site was sometimes physically impossible. The developer was slow at providing information, and had an overall reluctance to adhere to the shell specification.

Primark taking ownership and responsibility of the Smoke extract design & installation with interfaces delivered by the Landlord proved to be an issue and caused several months of delays.

Delayed plant and material lifting to the roof area and bad weather delayed the progress of the installation and this impacted was felt at commissioning stage.

Successes

Primark’s first store within the Bretagne region of France. The reception was unrivalled, with early indications suggesting the store was a huge success. As part of the design team, the project had its challenges, but with collaboration we ensured that each issue was overcome.

Metec Solutions

Due to the inflation issues, Metec assisted to try and value engineer the project to ensure the project was handed over on time and as close to the original budget as possible. As we couldn’t travel to site during COVID restrictions, we carried out site visits using Matterport technology, which worked very well.

We ensure that all items the developer were responsible for were communicated and minuted clearly to ensure they would rectify issues raised in accordance with the shell specification and to Primark’s Standards.

To ensure the HVAC plant conformed to the local noise requirements, we specified a low noise AHUs and installed attenuators to ensure noise levels were achieved. In order to meet Primark low energy design requirements and to conform to their ISO50001 protocol, the AHUs had a low specific fan power (SFP) which in turn helped with the acoustic requirements as fans were running at lower speeds.

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