MPBA Membership

I'm delighted to announce that PKL is now a member of the Modular & Portable Building Association.

In its own words:

"For more than 75 years, the Modular & Portable Building Association has been the voice and leading authority on the manufacture and application of both temporary and permanent factory based construction technologies in the UK.

The heart of modular construction technology in the UK, the MPBA works closely with Government and other regulatory bodies to ensure that the interests of the Modular or Offsite Industry are the focus of its activities.

In addition to the main Council, the Technical, Health & Safety and Marketing committees are constantly working hard to promote all the benefits that the industry is capable of providing."

All members are thoroughly assessed before joining, and the MPBA has developed an enforceable code of ethics and practices.

As well as PKL being a member, I now also sit on the committee as a member of the main MPBA Council. I'm looking forward to attending the next committee meeting in November and working with the MPBA in the future.

PKL Food Cubes – Creating a Positive Legacy

The image of modular buildings in schools has long been overshadowed by a legacy of slowly decaying classrooms and buildings no longer fit for purpose. But things have moved on a great deal in the world of modular construction as  Lee Vines, sales and marketing director at PKL, guest blogs to explain why.

Lee Vines, Sales and Marketing
Director at PKL

"PKL Food Cubes can be used not only to provide relief to busy dining areas in schools or provide additional catering facilities where pupil intake has risen sharply, but they can also be used to help create a positive legacy.

Our Food Cubes are supplied with a 15-year structural warranty, meaning they are built to last and are fit for purpose and unlike a GRP (glass reinforced plastic) or wooden construction, they can be used comfortably all year around.  Food Cubes are manufactured with a structural steel frame and fully insulated, fire rated and vandal resistant walls means that they easily comply with the latest building regulations. 

We advise extreme consideration before procuring something with a lower specification, which might not have the staying power of a compliant modular building and could end up costing more in the long term, or become unusable during certain times of the year.

One of the most important aspects of a Food Cube, is that they can begin to create a positive legacy at a school with almost an immediate effect. Constructed, delivered and installed in just six weeks, PKL Food Cubes have seen a variety of uses including to introduce a healthier school menu and  to ease pressure on existing dining facilities.  In the vast majority of cases where  Food Cubes have been introduced we have witnessed an uptake in school meals almost immediately.  This means fewer pupils going off site at lunchtimes and revenues  gained from catering are increasing, in some cases quite substantially.

PKL Food Cubes. Modular servery buildings for hire or sale.

Another major benefit of the Food Cube is that although a semi-permanent building, it is entirely relocatable, meaning that if for any reason the catering requirement reduces, or the school is closed, it is a simple task to move it to another school. 

We have also worked hard on exterior appearance and can now supply modular buildings with a wide range of wood cladding, brick slips, painted or vinyl wrap exteriors, meaning that each customer has full control over the final look and feel of the building.

I think that we have taken great steps to throw off the shackles of previous perceptions of modular and prefabricated buildings and are providing something which is not only great value, but will provide genuine longevity in terms of how long the buildings will last and for the positive effects that they can create."

Modular KitchenPods help Northamptonshire’s schools

PKL has supplied a total of 32 KitchenPod pre-fabricated kitchen buildings to schools in Northamptonshire as part of the County Council’s Hot School Meals programme, designed to raise the nutritional quality of school meals.

Northamptonshire County Council has embarked on a broad-ranging programme to equip 62 primary schools with kitchen facilities, using a mix of refurbishment of existing facilities, new build and PKL’s KitchenPods. The latter have proved particularly cost-effective in situations where there is no space in the existing school buildings to site a kitchen.

Working closely with the County Council, PKL developed three sizes of kitchen, capable of providing between 70 and 150 hot meals per day. Each is sized to have extra capacity to account for anticipated increases in pupil numbers. Where the KitchenPods could not be sited very close to existing buildings, PKL has also supplied regeneration trollies to facilitate delivery of the food to the servery and dining areas.

The County Council’s Martin Hewins, who has been managing the Hot School Meals programme, commented: “We have had a very good service from PKL and they have been very responsive to our needs. The new kitchens have also been well received by the staff.”

PKL’s KitchenPods are available in a number of different designs with a wide choice of equipment layouts to suit each school’s requirements, ranging from regeneration of pre-prepared meals to hot production of school meals. They can also be supplied in a range of finishes to help them blend with existing buildings.

The KitchenPod is just one of a range of modular kitchen building solutions available from PKL Group. Constructed offsite, PKL’s permanent modular kitchens can be built to end user specifications including size, layout, exterior finish and catering and dining equipment, and provide permanent solutions for both small and large scale catering requirements.

Watch a video of a KitchenPod installation by clicking here.