The Co-operative Group

In 2011, Johnsons were awarded a three year contract with The Co-operative to provide a “Total Relocation Package” across 10,000 properties UK wide. As part of our contract, we now employ seven full time staff across two of The Co-operative and Britannia sites, along with a full time Projects Manager and a dedicated Contract Manager.

The Project
In 2012, one of the major projects we undertook was the multi-phase migration of offices in to the new, purpose built, 1 Angel Square building in Manchester. The move involved approximately 2,000 staff members.

A flexible migration strategy was required due to the fluctuations in head counts as a result of a business rationalisation / restructuring programme. Prior to the main relocation into the Manchester office, we were required to undertake the planning and delivery of various enabling moves.

The moves involved; IT and server relocations, furniture relocations, safe relocations, storage, crate moves and the recycling of redundant furniture and effects & small de-lap works from redundant sites. Johnsons packed, moved and unpacked; thousands of linear metres of filling from across all sites involved. We also relocated locker boxes in cages and provided IT technicians to decom and re-com IT equipment

The Challenge

  • Developing a complex move planning strategy that was sensitive to the HR requirements of a large and lengthy consultation process
  • Ensuring all redundant furniture was cleared from the buildings to meet the client’s programme
  • Co-ordinating both our IT teams (undertaking decommissioning and re-commissioning works) and moves team between all sites
  • Dealing with restricted parking and access to various buildings, requiring flexibility in timings and working practices
  • Ensuring that the resource strategy allowed for flexibility due to the changing head counts and number of move phases
  • Implementing best practice in Move Databases and tracking procedures for all staff and equipment affected by the move due to data protection issues
  • Due to 1 Angel Square being newly developed, we had to ensure that the building was protected to maximise protection during the move phases
  • Controlling and managing multiple disciplinary teams across a variety of estates, sometimes during the same move weekend

The Result
The project was a huge success, with no downtime to the client’s business or service offering. Filing was transferred without a single loss or breach of data protection and the move was completed without a single claim to the client’s items and buildings being damaged. The recycling works were delivered with Zero Landfill and huge CO2 savings that allowed the Group to use against their environmental targets.

Client Testimonial
“When we chose Johnsons to deliver our migration project to One Angle Square, we knew we had a partner who understood the cost of downtime to our business and the potential damage that would bring to the businesses reputation. Most people don’t see the value in selecting the right service partner, focusing on cost and not balancing that with the potential risk, for example; data loss or damaged assets. Johnsons didn’t disappoint, our project was delivered with zero downtime to the Co-operative’s business.” Craig Lambert – The Co-operative