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From Suffolk to the south Atlantic: Poundfield delivers!

When asked to supply precast concrete products to a remote island community over 4000 miles away from our Suffolk base, our response was clear: “we can do this!”

Posted on: October 26th 2018 • Posted in: Alfabloc, Betaloc, Case studies, Industries, Retaining Walls, Waste & Recycling

Waste Silo constructed from Concrete Alfablocs - Ascension Island

Ascension Island is located in the middle of the south Atlantic and is one of three islands that make up the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

It is remote not only from the UK but elsewhere as well: it is 1000 miles from the African coast and 1400 from Brazil. It is also home to a strategically important RAF airbase

We received an email from Mike Haworth, the waste management project manager for the Ascension Island government.

Mike was looking for appropriate materials to construct a waste silo for the storage of general household waste. Initially, he was looking for a Lego-block solution but soon discovered that the weights involved would make the shipping costs too expensive.

Mike takes up the story: “I was looking for an easy to build flexible retaining wall system. An internet search resulted in me looking at the Poundfield website where I saw the perfect solution for this particular project – the Alfabloc™. I got a quote from them and this very much suited my budget.”

The Alfabloc™, our core brand, is a unique ‘A’ shaped retaining system developed as a versatile, freestanding and structural wall element for both agricultural and waste management uses – among others.

Mike continues: “the main difficulty remained the shipping over of the units to Ascension Island. It’s quite a complicated process as the only supply ship is a Ministry of Defence Naval auxiliary vessel and all freight has to go through their military port in Marchwood, Southampton.

“The team at Poundfield was really helpful in making this shipping happen. They liaised with our UK handler Richard James International and the shipping line, Kuehne & Nagel. It all worked like a dream!”

Rory Faulkner, our sales director – retaining walls added: “from our first point of contact with Mike, and in spite of this being a logistically rather challenging project, our attitude from the outset was ‘we can do this’! And I’m pleased to say we delivered on everything we promised.

“Poundfield is all about excellence in manufacturing, delivery and customer service and this contract with Mark shows that there is nowhere in the world that Poundfield cannot reach, especially given the support and expertise of our new owners, SigmaRoc.”