A COMPANY specialising in highways design has won a contract to work on the largest Marks & Spencer store outside London.
Consulting engineers Sanderson Associates, based at Grange Moor, will design and project manage all the off-site highways works at the new £45m M&S store at Cheshire Oaks in Ellesemere Port, near Chester.
The flagship store will be Marks & Spencer’s largest for 10 years and its biggest development in the UK outside London.
The contract has been awarded by developer Simons Developments Ltd, which is designing the store to include features to significantly cut energy use compared with a similar sized M&S store.
Alison France, managing director of Sanderson Associates, said: “This is a tremendous start to the new year for us. Cheshire Oaks is a major development and we look forward to delivering a complex project on time and within budget.
Neither will we compromise on quality.
“The retail sector has taken a hammering during this recession, but Marks & Spencer has proved remarkably resilient.
“The company’s £45m investment in the Ellesmere Port store is evidence that it has the confidence to expand in these difficult times.”
Sanderson Associates has identified 10 separate highway projects that will need to be designed and constructed before the new store can open.
Work is due to start on site at Cheshire Oaks early in 2010 with the store expected to open in 2012.
