ICC Expands To A New Retail Warehouse

Selling Your Home During An Economic Crisis

ICC Expands To A New Retail Warehouse In Pomona

text by Michael Nott photos by Fotohaus

INTERNATIONAL COATINGS COMPANY (ICC), OPENED THEIR NEW RETAIL OUTLET IN MARCH THIS YEAR. THE NEW SHOP AND SHOWROOM IS DIRECTLY ACROSS THE ROAD FROM THEIR EXISTING WAREHOUSE WHICH WE FEATURED IN ISSUE 20 IN 2019.

Their original warehouse included their offices, storage, receiving and dispatch as well as their sales department. The distinctive and funky façade, resembling a spread of paint colour swatches, as well as the reception and office spaces, were designed by Bruce Rowlands. The warehouse section was designed and built by Grid Transmission. The façade makes the building clearly stand out from the other surrounding warehouses and makes ICC unmissable.

Over the past few years ICC has grown steadily and they needed to expand their premises. In addition, they wanted to establish a distinct retail outlet and showroom separated from their warehousing space. The new outlet is much more convenient for customers as ICC’s full range of products is clearly displayed and customers can browse at leisure. It includes a colour wall where customers can see samples in larger panels to get a better idea of what their paint will look like, other display boards for different finishes, and their custom tinting department.

ICC were already considering their plans to acquire extra retail space when work started on the new warehouses directly across the road from their existing premises. They were quick to see the opportunity and approached the developers to occupy one of the two new structures which were in the process of being built. As a result, ICC were involved from the start of the construction process and were able to offer technical advice and supply some of their new products in the final build, like their micro-fibre solution which replaces the need for steel mesh in concrete slabs and their abe.®cron surface hardener which was incorporated in the final layer of the floor slab. This product dramatically increases the final MPa strength of the concrete floor as well as being extremely resistant to abrasion. This means that heavy machinery like trolley jacks and forklifts don’t scratch the floor slab helping to significantly reduce the amount of dust created within the warehouse.

The new premises are basically a steel skeleton, supplied by Brown Engineering, with brick in fills at the bottom while above that the walls and the roof are clad in dark grey Chromadek sheeting. An interesting detail of the construction is that both the Chromadek walls and the roof are clad with Alububble sheeting. Usually in warehouses only the roof is clad but by cladding the walls too the extra insulation helps maintain a comfortable temperature inside throughout the year. Another design detail is that rather than incorporating whirlybirds in the roof, as most warehouses do, there’s an air vent running the full extent of the roof ridge allowing for good air circulation. There are, of course, skylights set in roof for natural lighting, which can be augmented by LED lighting if needed. The high roof is a single span of approximately 42 x 20 metres with no supporting pillars, so the whole floor is open and clear. The retail outlet is around 840 square metres under the roof with a mezzanine bringing the usable space up to around 1000 square metres.

There’s the showroom and display area on the ground floor, as well as staff and customer toilets and a small kitchen while the mezzanine has two glassed in offices, a boardroom, and an open plan office/meeting space at the end. The mezzanine runs across the back wall of the building and is accessed by industrial looking steel staircases on both sides. The front face of the building has large windows facing the street as well as two large openings forming a separate entrance and an exit. There’s ample, paved, secure, off street parking for customers at the front. Large roller shutter doors at either end of the building provide easy access for the dispatch of larger orders.

Because the soil in the Pomona area is particularly unstable, a great deal of time and attention has been paid to the civil works, compacting and levelling the site, long before the actual construction began. Other building sites in the area have neglected to do this and then attempted, clumsily, to compact the surrounding soil after the structure was already in place. The civil work, which was delayed by the pandemic, took over a year to complete before the real construction work started towards the end of 2021. ICC finally gained access to the building in March this year so apart from the preparatory work the actual structural process was fairly quick, efficient and cost effective.

ICC’s huge product range includes decorative paints for the construction industry as well as industrial coatings for the mining, engineering, manufacturing and automotive industries. They supply wood coatings for DIYers and furniture manufacturers as well as a range of epoxy products, ready mixed specialized mortars, waterproofing solutions and concrete additives for repairs and finishes. They also supply some specialist coatings like anti-bacterial and anti-mosquito paints and low VOC water based epoxies and enamels.

Their leading paint range for decorative use is Prominent Paint and Paintchem for industrial applications, although they stock a variety of other brands. They even produce some coatings under their own ICC brand where they blend raw materials to create their own product. (They’re members of the Zimbabwe Paint Manufacturers Association.) Of course they stock all the necessary accessories like brushes and solvents and even spray painting equipment.

ICC pride themselves on being up to date with leading worldwide trends and innovations. They’re probably the most technically advanced coating company in Zimbabwe and can advise on the best products for any situation as well as supplying information about how best to use or apply their products. They can even supply quotations for quantities from either site visits or working off plan.

So whether you’re a keen DIYer, a contractor, an engineer or a manufacturer ICC has the perfect coating solution for you.