Lewis Howard Avenue celebrates significant 10 year milestone

In 2024, Constellation UK celebrates 10 years since the acquisition of our Lewis Howard Avenue (LHA) facility in Grimsby, this significant milestone marks a decade of investment into the facility and the local community.

Whilst we acquired LHA in 2014, the facility has a rich history dating back all the way to the 1930s, when the site originally opened as Watmough & Sons Biscuit Factory. Ownership of the factory would change several times over the years, including to the likes of Scribbans and Kemp (later known as Kemp Biscuits), and finally to United Biscuits, who produced several well-known brands of crisps such as Hula Hoops and Solos.

United Biscuits closed the factory in 1995, which at the time was a large employer in Grimsby employing several hundred people. Since the factory’s closure, the site was occupied by a variety of occupiers before eventually becoming abandoned in March 2010.

When Constellation UK (Known at the time as HSH Coldstores) acquired the former biscuit factory in 2014, four years of abandonment had left the facility in a poor state; most of the electrical components on site did not work as the wiring had been stripped for copper with many electrical boards being damaged beyond repair. Many parts of the site had also been vandalised with graffiti, and smashed windows.

Constellation UK saw an opportunity to modernise the former factory into a modern cold storage facility which would rival some of the largest facilities on offer in Grimsby at the time. However, before we could start using the site, significant investment was required to ensure the site was safe and secure for staff and visitors.

Initially, we utilised the existing plant room to run the cold storage rooms which were already on site. The existing plant dated from the 1970s, meaning it was inefficient to run.

Since 2014, we have invested a total of £10 Million in the facility to bring the site up to a modern standard which operates efficiently and improves the site’s appearance visually for the local community. The site fortunately has numerous mature trees and wildflowers which help to attract bird and insect life, further enhancing the local area. Recent modernisation projects carried out include:

• Installation of a modern computer-controlled plant room which requires less maintenance and is better for the environment
• Reconstruction of existing cold storage rooms and the installation of new rooms to increase storage capacity
• Installation of 27 new loading bays and 2 access ramps to reduce waiting times for drivers collecting and dropping off products
• Construction of a new side access road linking the front and central loading bays together
• Installing modern cladding on the sides of the building to make the site have a modern appearance
• Installation of new automatic gates and barriers, improving security on site
• Redevelopment of offices on site, turning previously unused space into functional spaces used by our employees
• Installation of solar panels on the cold store roof