Wyevale Nurseries have completed a £500,000 investment project on a brand new despatch facility, to service nationwide sales to garden centres.

The building will be opened on Monday by Wyevale Nurseries Ltd chairman Peter Williamson with a ceremony to mark the occasion in the presence of staff and directors of the Wyevale Nurseries group of companies.

This is the first unit of its kind in the UK, combining the latest warehousing technology with innovative horticultural design.

The main contractors and project mangers, Owen Pell, and electrical contractors, CF Roberts, have completed the project on schedule and the company is set to start using this facility within the next week.

The new building is a high spec, 2100 sq.m glasshouse, designed by John Farr and Associates and built by HOK Engineering (UK) Ltd, a company who construct glasshouses for horticulture all over Europe.

Effective climate control is achieved by thermal screens and vents installed by Priva (UK) Ltd, of Tewkesbury.

The temperature is maintained at an optimum for both plants and staff, not too hot in summer or too cold in winter.

The glass roof will give improved light levels, which will mean plants are maintained in peak condition before being despatched to customers. This also leads to an improvement to working conditions for our staff.

The new facility will allow Wyeveale to despatch nearly 50% more plants, up to 20,000 pots a day.

This will support the expansion of the growing area, which will increase production by an additional 250,000 plants a year.

Scissor lifts, supplied by Translyft (UK) Ltd, will ensure that plants are moved from the preparation area to one of the three docking bays as smoothly as possible to reduce damage.