HBOS Manchester

Typical of the HBOS programme success is the new branch created in the Antonine Shopping Centre in Cumbernauld. The branch, one of six major projects awarded to HCI, was acquired by HBOS as an empty shell in the Antonine Shopping centre. Over a twelve week fit-out period the unit was transformed from a vacant shell to a trading retail banking branch with dedicated areas for customer and business banking, office and administration, and HBOS colleague areas.

The HCI project management team worked in close co-ordination with the shopping centre staff to minimise disruption to the other retail trading in the centre, in particular the adjacent units and large retail sports unit located directly above the branch.

Integral to the success of the project was the creation of a dedicated plant room to house air-conditioning, IT and major electrical components on a mezzanine area. An innovative
ventilation system was designed by HCI’s in-house M&E design team. The system housed on the internal mezzanine area within the branch delivered the project and client several benefits. The ventilation system was designed with a heat recovery system, recycling excess heat generated by the refrigeration unit of the air-conditioning plant, providing a ‘green’ solution by significantly reducing the overall energy consumption required to operate the branch. The housing of all plant in an internal mezzanine unit within the branch minimised both the disruption to other trading units within the Antonine Shopping centre and maximised the floor space for the Retail banking customer area as bulky electrical equipment was located in the plant area.

Innovation continued to the front of house customer areas. Graphic panels were incorporated to create clear customer zones for assistance, banking and consultation areas. This enables the retail area of the branch to be highly flexible, providing the branch team with the ability to easily change the flow of the branch and update the retail area with the latest product offers with interchangeable graphic panels.

HBOS were delighted with the end product and provided very positive feedback at the last site meeting prior to hand-over commending the effort the HCI’s site team went to, to ensure that all programmed targets were achieved. The Cumbernauld project scored maximum points in HCI’s customer satisfaction monitor.