Bigger really is better…the new trend we’re seeing in 2024

For many years at Fordingbridge, we maxed out at 20m span canopies. It was all our clients wanted and it was what the engineering standards of the time allowed.

But fast forward a decade and everything has changed. Now, we’re increasingly seeing that bigger really is better for many of our clients.

Back in 2021, we designed and installed the UK’s largest retail canopy at Simpsons garden centre in Inverness, with a vast span of 52m x 25m, and have been inundated with orders for similar ever since. And just recently we collaborated with the English Cricket Board and Total Play to design a huge 42m x 42m canopy that created the world’s first indoor / outdoor hybrid cricket facility.

So, what are the trends driving this new fascination with size? We believe there are three:

1. Firstly, we’ve seen retail become a leisure activity. Garden centres are no longer places to just pick up bedding plants. They are destinations in their own right – places for a ‘day out’. And this trend has fundamentally changed what they need to offer to compete. Large canopies provide retailers in this increasingly competitive sector with a cost-effective way of creating new facilities whether it be a farm shop, an indoor / outdoor dining area or covered play space.
2. Secondly, post covid, we’re seeing a new relationship with the outdoors world. We’ve become used to dining, playing, and congregating outside and we’ve come to enjoy it. So, increasingly, we’re seeing schools, leisure centres, retailers, and holiday parks attractions wanting to offer more indoor / outdoor, hybrid experiences and wanting to do this at scale.
3. Finally, of course, with the explosion of e-commerce, we’re seeing warehouses and logistics operations becoming turbo charged. The solutions they need aren’t just big – they’re vast.

Luckily, engineering has moved at a speed that has enabled us to keep pace and we can now create single and twin span canopies and building structures that would have been unthinkable just five years ago. And we’re continually pushing new boundaries.

So, if you’re contemplating an ambitious new project and wanting scale, why not get in touch today to see just how big we can go?

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