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Lift Maintenance & Modernisation
WHSmith is one of the UK’s best-known retailers specialising in the sale of books, stationery and magazines. It also holds the title of being the world’s first retail chain.
Jackson is very proud of our long-standing relationship with WHSmith, and we were recently asked to tender for the lift modernisations in two of their stores: one located in Plymouth and the other in St Austell, both in the southwest, in Devon and Cornwall, respectively. Both branches are situated in town centre pedestrian zones, in relatively modern double-fronted shop units. The Plymouth store is in a three-storey building whilst St Austell is two-storey. Each have older traction lifts that serve the shop floors, as well as the basement and top-floor stockrooms.
Jackson is proud to have been maintaining the lifts at these WHSmith stores for many years, during which time our engineers have identified potential problems and reported them to WHSmith for repair or upgrade approval. Unfortunately, in each of the stores, the lifts were showing signs of end-of-life reliability, and simple repairs were not an option.
Appreciating the potential problems with each lift, Jackson Sales Engineers undertook detailed lift status surveys before submitting our findings with costings to WHSmith.
The modernisation work required included rewinding of the lift’s motors, new car operating panels and new lift controllers. Special care had to be taken with regard to the old lift controllers, as they had asbestos contact shielding within them. In instances where asbestos is present, we always inform the customer and use asbestos specialists to help with removal
and disposal.
Jackson local engineers, working from our Bournemouth offices, undertook each of the modernisations, taking great care to avoid disturbance or inconvenience to WHSmith’s customers and employees. As we finished each job, our engineers undertook the necessary safety and quality testing requirements before each lift was returned to service, much to the delight of store users.