New offices were a safe bet for Coral
THE ONE Stratford Place development is a 130,000 square feet grade A office complex, at the Westfield shopping centre in east London. The site is a stone’s throw away from the Olympic Village.
Coral, the bookmaker, was the first occupier to move into the development. The company made the move from its former headquarters, about five miles down the road in Barking. The company took out a 15-year lease deal with Westfield for 31,000 square feet of space over the seventh floor and part of the eighth floor. The move included the fit-out and furniture.
Westfield went to market to seek a company and product that could fulfil its brief for design and quality. However, it also wanted the furniture system to be affordable. Westfield chose the Do-it bench system from K+N as it ticked all of the right boxes.
The new Coral office is used by general office staff and also its own internal IT team, retail shop support team and trading departments. All of these department needed a gargantuan amount of cable management within their workstations. Colin Pearson, an operations manager at K+N, says that “the ability to accommodate the mass of in-desk cabling and present it in a structured manner to the on-desk monitor arms and equipment was crucial,” especially as there are no dividing screens to hide all of the cables behind.
Although the original Do-it system had a shared cable channel which is both capacious and simple to use, Coral required more. Pearson adds: “As part of the project process, I spent a great deal of time with the Coral IT department developing a solution that worked for its specific requirements.” As the largest manufacturer of office furniture in Europe, K+N’s factory is geared-up to develop and build unique components that suit individual requirements.
The ease with which the bench can be broken down and re-assembled, and its inherent strength and durability were shown to Westfield and Coral during a live demonstration. Kevin Nixson, who works in Coral’s property team said: “Coral looked at several manufacturers but felt that the flexibility and technical capabilities of the K+N offering, along with its helpful project team, made K+N the company that we wanted to work with.”
This project was completed on time, in conjunction with both Westfield and Coral who were extremely happy to have worked with K+N, who in turn, were particularly pleased to be the first company to furnish this prestigious new development for two highly successful companies.
The result was a clean look, across what is largely a column-free floor plate. Pearson says: “The finished floor has a quality reminiscent of a swan; elegant and simple on the eye, but working hard out of sight.”