Lanes in step with footwear retailer for drain cleaning

Drainage and utility specialist Lanes Group has won additional work to maintain drainage systems at warehouses operated by international fashion and sportswear brand JD Sports.

The retailer, famous for its top footwear brands, is using Lanes expertise to maintain its main fashion, shoes and accessories distribution centre at the Kingsway business park, Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

It has now also commissioned the Lanes Manchester depot to also carry out planned and preventative maintenance (PPM) drain cleaning at its new distribution centre in Middlewich, Cheshire.

Lanes Manchester Area Development Manager Marwan Wali said: “We’re delighted to be supporting JD Sports with a PPM drain inspection and cleaning services.

“We have the capacity and capability to deliver planned services and respond quickly to any reactive cleaning requirements JD Sports needs, which ensures we’re aligned with their needs and high expectations.”

Under the well-established PPM service at JD Sports’ Kingsway site, Lanes deploys a jet vac tanker and CCTV drain survey team at least six times a year to clean and inspect all drains.

Lanes also cleans and inspects four wastewater interceptors on the large site and provides emergency blockage removal support for toilets and internal drains using a van pack jetting and CCTV survey unit.

The service involves cleaning and surveying around 800m of drains, both clay and PVC, with diameters ranging from 100mm to 375mm, along with open surface channels.

Lanes has been requested to deliver a similar service for external surface water gullies at the new Middlewich distribution centre which supports other JD Sports brands, including Go Outdoors, Millets and Blacks.

The benefit of having access to Lanes’ expertise and service capacity was demonstrated in May 2020, when heavy rains resulted in parts of the Kingsway site being flooded, threatening access roads and service aprons.

“We could mobilise three jet vac tankers the same day to clear and overpump water and commit the resources for as long as they were needed to support JD Sports’ logistics and retail operations,” said Marwan Wali.

“Back-up like this is vital for retailers and logistics specialists with weather becoming more volatile due to climate change. Our teams are proud to be able to deliver this level of service when it’s needed.

“The current COVID-19 pandemic makes it all the more important that operations at logistics and online retail fulfilment centres are not disrupted by adverse weather events.”