The last 12 months has seen some serious construction and renovation work take place at the premises totalling an investment of over £1m including the property purchase.
The buildings and the existing one next door have been combined and optimised for Adlib's busy operation, with more room for all divisions of the company.
In addition to this, a further £1.2m was invested in new equipment last year to ensure that the current rental stock in all departments offers the latest, best and most popular technologies to Adlib's clients and projects.
Integral to the new warehouse is a custom designed fully self-contained classroom complex, seating up to 85 and configurable in different formats, plus a series of practical areas for training sessions and seminars.
Training has long been at the core of the company's philosophy and central to its modus operandi, and creating these facilities has always been one of CEO Andy Dockerty's visions.
As well as Adlib's own extensive internal training programmes, the new facilities are also available for use by suppliers and manufacturers to stage their own open days, product awareness and training events.
L-Acoustics has already staged two K1 system training sessions and launched its new ARCS cabinet there. Other premium brands utilising the training space in the near future include Lab gruppen, DigiDesign, Yamaha, Midas and Shure.
Just outside the classroom is a large demo area that can be fully draped off, which is set up with four different audio consoles, allowing engineers to experiment.
Also new is a separate space dedicated to rigging and motors, a series of prep bays plus service and technical areas and workshops.
The overall office space has now doubled, with more room for the accounts department which has gained another member of staff. This, together with an airy new master boardroom, is integral to the contemporary internal layout. The lighting and AV departments have also had their available space doubled.
The company has taken on six other new full-time staff as part of an on-going restructuring process of which the new warehouse is a key element, bringing the total to 85, plus the regular pool of freelance engineers and technicians.
Tim Robinson has come onboard to co-ordinate the Hire Track department and Dave Bennett has joined to supervise rigging, staging and associated accessories.
Gareth Dubbeling joins the team as workshop manager, in charge of all incoming projects, while John Fitzsimmons will map all the kit and run inventories and stock holding checks. Dave Platt is the new warehouse manager for lighting & AV and Jon Priest joins Tristan Bryant in the AV department.
Five new apprentices have also been taken on with more to follow shortly. Adlib is part of the Creative Apprenticeship scheme run in conjunction with Liverpool Community College.
Says Andy Dockerty, "The expansion, the restructuring and the new warehouse has been a necessity to service not only our clients increasing demands but also to service our internal needs and requirements. The demands upon our office and warehouse staff to continually deliver under the constraints put upon them by lack of space and support were becoming increasingly problematic. Now we collectively have a far superior infrastructure in every way, with both the facilities and personnel to provide a solid foundation for the next 5 years development."
(Jim Evans)
