Galsswells - onwards and upwards
Steady as she goes! A huge 6.5 tonne escalator inches into position in Glasswells new showroom on Orwell Retail Park in Ipswich.
The monster escalator, lifted into the building by a massive 55 tonne crane, will take just 3.5 seconds to transport customers from the ground floor to the mezzanine floor.
The state of the art, 35 degree pitch, glass-sided Stannah escalator was shipped from China and brought by road to Ipswich. It has a special low-energy mode, so when not in use it slows down, only to speed up when it detects a "passenger".
The 73,000 sq.ft. showroom, which is being built in a tight 35 week building programme by Barnes Construction, is due to open in December 2008. On completion, the showroom will be similar in size and scope to Glasswells' flagship store in Bury St Edmunds.
Paul Glasswell, managing director of Glasswells, said, &qout;The building programme is well on target and should be completed at the end of October. We will then spend several weeks fitting it out and filling it with some of the best quality value for money furnishings from across the world."
"We aim to make this one of the premier home furnishings stores in the whole of East Anglia and we are investing approximately £5million in Ipswich. We're sure that once shoppers in the east of Suffolk see what this huge new store has to offer, they will be absolutely delighted. They can look forward to the widest range of furniture, linens, curtains, flooring, lighting, as well as a superb restaurant, serving freshly prepared food all day long," he added. "I promise that they have a real treat to look forward to."