How does Colruyt Group Technics tackle flooding?
In Belgium it is not uncommon for the rain to come down in bucketfuls. How does Technics limit the damage such torrential rains can bring?
“Better safe than sorry”
Christophe De Waele, division manager Buildings at Colruyt Group Technics: “Prevention is always better than cure. We therefore take preventive measures when designing our buildings. Our stores for example are raised at least 20 centimetres above street level. The medium-voltage cabin is also installed at an elevation of at least 20 centimetres above the car park level. In addition, we implement certain preventive measures in the stores themselves. We use non-return valves to keep the waste water that we generate out. Think for example of our connection to the sewage."
Our technical facilities are also properly protected against flooding. Christophe: “We work with a technical platform at height. By placing our technical installations on such elevations, we keep more sales area and our technicians can work on the installations without hindering the customers. A third advantage is that they are high and dry even during heavy floods.”
“In-house technical service is a major advantage”
We regularly experienced heavy rainfall in recent summers. Despite the many precautions we do exceptionally incur damage.
Christophe: “Fortunately, we have a crisis team for such situations. We appoint a coordinator for each affected store to ensure a smooth restart. The fact that we have a large in-house technical department is an advantage that should not be underestimated. We can quickly and purposefully deploy our people to check and repair installations. This helped us through the past summers, for example, during heat waves, when the demand for refrigeration technicians exceeded the supply by far.”
