End of Lease Dilapidation work in Calne

Cre8tive Interiors had been a provider of Office Interior fit out and refurbishment work over many years for Fabrinet in Calne. The previous name was Exceptions EMS and we had been carrying out work at the premises since 2014 to 2023. It was a complete surprise to find that the site was closing in 2023 with the loss of 100 jobs. For us, over the years we had carried out many projects, and actually knew the building and the people quite well.

When we were advised of the close, the management team contact us as they were presented with a £1.2m dilapidation bill from the landlord.

Fabrinet only rented the space, and over the years had installed many things, much of which had to be stripped out. All of the equipment was going to Thailand where Fabrinet has another facility, there were centralizing production, having closed their factory in Germany as well, earlier on in the year.

The big issue really was that Fabrinet obviously did not want to spend that kind of money and as the business was closing the first priority was the staff. Once the staff were sorted there was a limited amount left. It was then a case of prioritizing, going through each section to make sure it is the best that could be done with the money.

There were a great many things we had to do. Below is a list which probably does not show the scale of what we did as the areas were huge.

• Stripping out all of the partitioning we had installed over the years on the ground floor, with the suspended ceilings inside them as well.
• Removal of the metal skinned secure assembly area.
• Replacing of suspended ceilings in many rooms, some were replacement of grid as well.
• Replacement of carpet
• Painting the whole of the building inside, as well as underneath the first floor, all staircases.
• Check operation and repair all 103 internal doors.
• Repair of all external doors.
• Stripping out of redundant cables, removal of the old air conditioning systems and replacement.
• Servicing all of the existing air conditioning and ventilation systems
• Repair of the gas fired overhead Ambi-rad heating system.
• Replacement of window boards

In order to cost all of the areas properly, we had to create many drawings and detail all of the activities that needed to be done. One of them that was time consuming, was that each door had to be looked at and cleaned / replaced if the oil from door closers had leaked into the wood, replacing damaged kickplates, push plates, replacing door closers and checking for gaps in the doors. There were 103 doors. We produced a schedule and then costed the work on each door.

Throughout all of the years of doing work at Fabrinet, we were not allowed to take any photos. The only ones we could take were when they were closing and we managed to take a few just before we started the stripping out work. All of the equipment seen was being removed and shipped to Thailand or being sold.

It was demoralising to remove much of what we built on the shop floor over many years, not as bad for the employees losing their jobs of course. The key word with it all is of course demountable partitioning. It was all aluminium framed and easily removed, just a vast amount of it. All of the offices needed new ceilings, or replacement tiles, most needed carpets and decoration throughout.

Over the years it never ceases to amaze us how much surveyor costs are but fully appreciate they are to a particular code of estimating, which they all have to follow. As Cre8tive Interiors actually does the work and does not subcontract the majority of work we can actually do the work much cheaper than many traditional builders. All they would so is sub to us for the partitioning, ceilings, ac and ventilation work, so we may as well just do the work anyway.

Always interested in looking at leases at the time to move, if we can help in anyway and save money, please do not hesitate to contact us.