Huvo has taken on the unit adjacent to our main offices at Gilsea Park and knocked through, giving the business significantly more floor space. The extra room is being put to work in two main ways: a larger stores area to hold more stock, and a dedicated engineering area built around our pre-programming services. Alongside this, the original overflow store opposite our main offices is being repurposed into an experience centre and meeting space for workshops and continuing professional development (CPD) sessions.
Here’s what’s changing, and what it means for you on your next order.
A bigger stores area
Anyone who has chased a lead time on a panel or a batch of detectors knows that stock on the shelf is what gets a job finished. Expanding into the adjacent unit lets us hold more of the products you order most, across more of the fire and security ranges we distribute.
The practical result is more lines available for next-day delivery and fewer split shipments on larger orders. For stocked items, Huvo’s published delivery policy says orders received before 2.30pm are eligible for same-day dispatch, with almost all UK Mainland orders delivered by DPD, usually next day. If you’re pricing a project and want to check availability on a specific quantity, our team can confirm stock before you commit.
A dedicated engineering area for pre-programming
Pre-programming has become one of the most used services we offer. Sending a panel and its devices to site already configured — addresses set, loop data loaded, cause and effect in place — cuts commissioning time and removes a good deal of the risk of getting it wrong in a plant room with the client watching.
Until now that work has been done wherever there was bench space. The new engineering area will be laid out specifically for it: dedicated benches, test rigs and the tooling our in-house engineers need to configure systems efficiently and check them before dispatch. That means a more consistent process on our side and a quicker turnaround on yours.
If you haven’t used the service before, it’s worth asking about at quote stage. Our engineers all have hands-on installation experience, so they understand what needs to be right before a system leaves the building.
An experience centre for hands-on product time
The overflow store opposite our main offices is becoming an experience centre. The idea is simple: a space where our team and our customers can get hands-on with a wide range of the fire and security products we sell, rather than relying on a datasheet or a screenshot.
For installers and specifiers, that means being able to see a panel’s interface before committing to it, compare detector ranges side by side, walk through a CCTV or intruder set-up, and ask questions of someone who has installed the kit. For our own team, it keeps everyone current on the products they’re advising on.
A home for workshops and CPDs
The experience centre will also double as a dedicated meeting space. Our free-to-attend workshops with manufacturers have run throughout the year, covering product demonstrations and training on specific topics and systems; having a purpose-built room with the products in it makes them more useful, because what’s being discussed can be picked up and demonstrated. The same applies to CPD sessions and manufacturer-led training.
We’ll share details of upcoming sessions and how to book once the space is ready.
And what it means for you
Taken together, the expansion is about the things that matter on a job: getting the right product, on time, configured correctly, from people who know what they’re talking about. More stock reduces waiting. A proper engineering area makes pre-programming faster and more reliable. The experience centre will give you a way to see products properly and keep your team’s knowledge current.
If you’d like to hear more about the upcoming experience centre, ask about pre-programming on a future project, or check stock on something specific, call us on 01792 983 170 or email [email protected].
