Case Study: Veitchi at Nairn Academy

Adapting to Achieve Performance Enhancements

Stream-lining the fit-out process to create a compliant and more efficient job site… 

Valued customer Veitchi group have been working with MEP Hire to provide hire solutions to support their projects for some time. When taking on the fit-out of the new Nairn Academy near Inverness, they looked to MEP for support once again. 

Construction of a brand-new building to replace the current 50-year-old school, is underway and due to be completed in August 2026. A £61m project, the new Nairn Academy secondary school will have capacity for 800 pupils - at its peak, 170 construction workers are expected to be employed on-site. 

After winning the contract for the internal fit-out (ceilings and partitions), Veitchi called on MEP to help stream-line the process of fitting the hundreds of ceilings and classroom walls required on-site. 

Stuart Smith, Account Manager at MEP Hire said, “with such a high number of internal fixes to make, Veitchi understood that being able to maximise efficiency on a project of this scale, was key to their success. By supporting them to innovate around materials handling on-site, we identified the perfect hire solution for the job.”

MEP Hire were able to suggest the Adaptakart Auto-braked Work Trolley. Its key innovation being that it allows the quick and safe movement of large sheet materials around site, whilst doubling up as a workbench by rotating materials to a horizontal position.

Designed to ensure large sheet materials are safer and less awkward to move, Adaptakart features a pivoting rack to hold and rotate boards through 90°, allowing them to be measured and cut in situ. Additionally, with a ‘SafeStop Deadman Braking System’, users benefit from greater control on slopes and while loading. 

“This product has saved our colleagues lots of time and effort. By being able to work on sheet materials as they are delivered to site, in real-time, we have been able to fit partitions and ceilings with both ease and speed”, commented David Fraser, Site Manager at Veitchi group. 

Using the Adaptakart, Veitchi were able to load materials directly from the loading bay onto the trolleys and manoeuvre them around the large site quickly and with ease. Once in place, users were able to rotate boards and make use of the trolley’s handy workbench feature to measure and cut boards ready for fitting. 

“MEP Hire have always been able to suggest new and innovative solutions that allow us to perform even more safely, whilst helping us to achieve more – we really value the experience and expertise the team have over there; it makes a huge impact to our output”, David Fraser, Veitchi.

Innovation, along with safety and efficiency, are always the key factors when choosing products to add to the fleet at MEP Hire. Together with the Adaptakart, Veitchi benefited from Low Level Access, Dust Extraction and Tooling on-site.

If you’d like to find out more about the Adaptakart, please click here.