Hazlewood Foods, Selby

Hazlewood Foods produces various foods and other pasteurised products in a 4000m² bottling hall at their premises in Selby. They supply own-brand goods to major blue-chip supermarket groups in the UK.

In November 2000, the River Ouse burst its bank causing the site to be inundated with floodwater up to 1m deep. When Thomasons first visited the site the following week, the main bottling hall was still partially under water along with approximately 50% of the site. As well as the bottling hall, the laboratories, main offices, plant room, production and preparation areas, raw materials storage, cardboard and completed materials were all damaged by floodwater.

At our first meeting we were advised that it would be necessary for production to recommence by the end of January or Hazlewood could lose customers. Due to the possibility of contamination it was necessary to strip out large areas of the building. The main bottling hall had a 4000m² tiled floor which was taken up and replaced with a new concrete screed finished with a resin topping. New stainless steel drainage gullies were manufactured in Sweden and flown to site in order to save time. Part of the bottling hall was reinstated and the remainder sheeted off to allow the first pasteurising machine to be reinstalled and production to start on time. The remainder of the works then continued allowing Hazlewood to resume full production within twelve months of the incident.

The total cost of the building work was £4m although the final cost to insurers was ten times this making the project one of the largest flood claims ever in the United Kingdom.