THOLOMEW'S Gazetteer of pin describes Dunton Green
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suburb of Sevenoaks in with a population of 5,557. kind of place you could miss ou blinked while passing ugh. It lies just off Britain's t talked of motorway, M25, a to the Weald of Kent and linutes from Gatwick's busy
aw people outside the .inoaks area will have heard his apparently sleepy little ish hamlet. Yet there is a d chance that if you have n beefburgers, cheesecake, :Team, New Zealand lamb, Quality Street, Black Magic or After Eight Mints and live in the South of England, your repast was stored at Dunton Green.
Behind the cottages and villas on the main street hidden by trees lies an 18-acre site housing 31/2m cubic feet of cold storage. This is the West Kent Cold Store (WKCS) owned by Mitchell Cotts Trading Division.
Most people would find it difficult to be even midly enthusastic about 5,000 carcases of New Zealand lamb or 100 tons of frozen pet food. Yet, Ian Lister exmaster mariner, now the WKCS director and general manager, makes cold storage sound exciting.
He could be described as the mortuary boss. It is purely by chance that one of the tenants on the 18-acre site is a coffin manufacturer.
WKCS claims to be 20 miles from London, close to the M25, M26, M20, A2, the Dartford Tunnel and Gatwick and have easy access to the approach road to Tilbury, Dover and Folkestone. This is not a case of good forward planning as Peter Wirth, Mitchell Cotts managing direc tor, jocularly claims, When the complex was established 33 years ago on the site of an old bricks work, these motorways were not even on the drawing board.
We could not get it confirmed but we suspect that back in the Fifties Mitchell Cotts chose Dunton Green for the best of economic reasons. That was before a journalist on The Sunday Times introduced "Juggernaut" to the daily vocabulary and before the emergence of the environmentalist. In today's climate, getting planning permission for such a complex in rural Britain would 'doubtless lead to public inquiries, "demos" and Parliamentary questions from the honourable member of Sevenoaks.
Think about it for a moment. The site is open 24 hours daily, seven days each week. Each day 500 vehicles from one-ton vans to 38-tonne artics move in and out. To do so they have to negotiate a narrow village street down a country lane and into the yard.
Do the locals complain? "Not at all," says Mike Marshall, the Trading Division managing director. "They and the site have grown up together."
There could be another reason for acquiescence. WKCS is the largest employer in Dunton Green, closely followed by Marley. With 400 employees, WCKS has around one-third of the working population although they are not the sole employers.
There are 30 tenants on the site, each responsible for staffing their own store. The stores are in units varying in size from 22,000sqft to 480,000sqft.
Leases vary from one year to 10, all are renegotiable on expiry. The lease includes power, servicing and security. Six refrigeration engineers control the engine room and maintain the plant.
Controlled temperature is critical; different commodities require different levels, varying from 40 degrees F to minus 50 degrees F. The plant has to meet the stringent requirements of Lloyds register.
WKCS tenants vary almost as greatly as the temperature range. The big companies include Alpine — ice creams and gateaux; Tower, frozen meat and Cordon Bleu frozen lambs; and Rowntrees — your Christmas chocolates are in Dunton Green now. Buxted Chickens load eight to 10 vehicles every day with frozen poultry for the Kentish supermarkets and village grocers.
The Alpine operation typifies the method of working at WKCS. During the day the loading bank is given over to goods inwards. In the "silent hours" Alpine's ten 71/2-tonne fridge vans are loaded for next day delivery. At the height of the season each driver makes 40 drops. That adds up to 50 tonnes of ice cream at 400 outlets each day.
One of the great advantages of this cold store complex is that tenants can co-operate. Spare capacity can be sub-let to other tenants who are temporarily over stocked.
There is also an element of trading between tenants with consignments changing hands in the warehouse. This leads to flexibility and allows a trader to specialise in one product but provides his customer with a variety drawn from on-the-spot sources.
Spare van capacity can also be hired out and part loads are regularly accommodated by a next-door neighbour.
In addition to storage space WKCS can provide office accommodation in its own well appointed and spacious office block.
The latest development at WKCS is "Immuno House" a purpose-built block with specialised secure storage for pharmaceutical products.
Then there is H block — a public cold store in this context. This houses 5,000 tons of frozen meat and lamb mainly on short term rental for a wide range of customers. The entire stock turns round every two months. It is also a bonded warehouse, not for wines, spirits and tol but would you believe, fo Zealand lamb.
One of the side effects entry to the Common 11 was that NZ lamb becamE tiable import. Is it any the All Blacks are givin British Lions a rough time!
These lambs are held in duty free until sold. Ther no sign of an excise man.
The future at Dunton Gr planned. Further develoi of the site is on the dr board and existing areas E ing redeveloped.
Nothing — but nothing the plans will disturb the and tranquility of Dunton ( The residents can go abou rural pursuits safe i knowledge that peace will Should they ever be seige, down the leafy lar yond the railway station tt enough food, basic and 1u) to feed them and their pr 12 months and more, all 14 prime condition u controlled temperature.