Ruislip-based WilcoxBurchmore was set an unusual task over the summer: to turn a garden shed into a kitchen for St Edwards Prep School in Reading.

The dealer’s brief for the £82,000 project was to convert three areas into one big kitchen. WilcoxBurchmore’s co-founder and director, Michael Burchmore detailed: “The original kitchen had no catering equipment apart from one 3/1 hot counter; no prep area, no sinks and really wasn’t fit for purpose.

“There was a partition wall in the middle of the room to divide the wash up and kitchen area. We took this down to make it much bigger and open it up. There was also a PE store cupboard which we took out to make a big storage area.”

The distributor’s project team has to completely gut the area, then re-wire and re-plumb the facility. It also installed a new ceiling and new flooring, lights, ventilation, decoration and white rock, as well as upgrading the boiler.

Burchmore explained: “Equipment-wise we chose a Rational 10 grid white efficiency for its versatility and the Blue Seal E506D for its durability. We also selected two Foster HR150Sa under counter fridges, a Foster EP700 H upright fridge, and a Foster EP700L upright freezer. Foster units have proved to be the most reliable and have a 1% call out rate.”

The project was completed on time over 5 weeks during July and August, despite a 1.5 week delay due to the electricity board putting a new supply into the kitchen.