SEC Interiors completed the office and industrial property strip-out, design and installation of stylish new office interior with warehouse storage area for e-Commerce pick and pack requirement.

Having agreed an initial five-year lease for an industrial office and warehouse facility in the heart of Hemel Hempstead, Keeto Life were provided with three potential interior design and fit-out companies by the letting agent. The initial talks led to them almost making the decision to work with another company based on price alone, however Andy Welch, managing director and founder of Keeto Life, then met with Russell Coleman, SEC Interior’s Sales Director.

Expertise and knowledge
“What made SEC stand out from the crowd was the expertise and knowledge, not only for the physical interior fit-out elements, but the legislative and regulative areas of leasing a warehouse to ensure the environment provided a safe and inviting workspace. With expert knowledge from fire safety to air particulates, Russell took the time to guide us through the whole process and explain how our vision and budget could work in reality, ensuring we were compliant, productive and provide a welcoming environment for our staff.

Requirements
“Despite being a start-up, SEC Interiors treated us like we were a £10million business, nothing was too much trouble and their advice was invaluable. The design discussions also took into account our immediate requirements to get up and running with order processing and deliveries, as well as the longer term view of our business growth plans.”

Having agreed to work with SEC, the design team then devised a stylish and comfortable office layout with bespoke features such as the food preparation area which is vital for Keeto Life’s product development.

SEC Storage
In the warehouse area, SEC Storage, part of the SEC Group, designed and installed a pallet racking storage solution to hold a combination of packaging supplies and product items. They created plenty of scope to increase stock holding as their business expands to new lines and increased volume of customer orders.

Key elements of the strip out and office fit-out project:

  • Strip out of interior elements & remedial building works
  • Meeting room and breakout area for staff & visitors
  • Kitchen & washroom facilities
  • Flooring fitted in core areas
  • Bespoke food safe preparation area
  • Warehouse upgrade of electronics for production line
  • LED energy saving lighting
  • Upgraded fire safety system with new fire alarms and sensors
  • Adjustable Pallet Racking for packaging and product storage

Andy continued, “SEC’s installation team had an excellent relationship with all the trades needed on site. They managed the entire process seamlessly and ensured we hit our move-in deadline. We’ve grown from processing online orders from my garage in the early stages of the pandemic, to being fully operational in our new office and warehouse facility with a staff of 21 and over 100,000 orders delivered in our first year!”

Future plans
Award-winning Keeto Life has big plans for expansion with the potential to convert the existing mezzanine into additional office and storage space with outline ideas already in place from SEC Interiors for best use of the area.

Then Andy concluded, “We are always looking at ways to innovate and the next step is to take on a second unit dedicated to food manufacture. It was always my dream to develop and then manufacture our own lines of low-carb foods and SEC Interiors provides us with a knowledgeable and trusted partner that we can work alongside to take us there.”