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Factory relocation in London and across the home counties
Manufacturers and food producers on the Lea Valley estates and in the outer boroughs call us when they outgrow a unit or must leave one. We run the whole move from one point of contact: surveying both sites, decommissioning with your engineers and the equipment makers, strip-out, lifting, packing and crating, transport, then levelling and setting to line at the new building ready for recommissioning.
We work in every borough, from Enfield and Romford to Croydon and Uxbridge, and out into Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire. A desktop survey and quote can come back the same working day.
What a factory relocation covers
The work runs from the last shift at the old site to handover at the new one, and the plant ranges from CNC machine tools and presses to injection moulding machines, conveyors, compressors, process skids and racking. Machines that are not coming with you can be removed for sale or disposal on the same visit. If the new unit is not ready, equipment goes into storage until it is. Some moves take a day; others run for months in phases.
Factory moves we plan in London
| Type of move | What sets the timetable | What we handle |
|---|---|---|
| Moving to a bigger or newer unit | Handover of the new building and notice on the old lease | Both surveys, extraction, transport and reinstallation to the new layout |
| Bringing two sites onto one | When the receiving site has space and power ready | Plant moved in the order the combined layout needs, surplus machines taken away |
| A closure, with working plant going to a sister site here or abroad | The closure date and the delivery date at the far end | Decommissioning, export crating and loading to suit the freight booking |
| Rearranging within the same building or site | The output you need to keep during the change | Machines moved bay by bay while the rest keeps running |
| A single line or department moving | A shutdown window agreed with production | Disconnection with your engineers, then extraction, transport and setting to line |
| A lease end forcing a move | The date the landlord takes the building back | Storage if the new unit is late, and removal of anything not going |
Our factory relocation service page covers each stage in more depth.
Contact us
Get In Touch
Please leave a few details and a member of our factory relocation team will be in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail.
Where we work in and around London
Factory moves in London come from these areas.
The Lea Valley estates
Engineering and fabrication firms along the Lea Valley run machine tools and presses that move as a set, in a planned order, onto bases poured to suit. See our industrial sector page.
East London and the Thames side
Out towards Barking and Dagenham, the plant that moves is injection moulding machines, compressors, conveyors and packaging lines, with extraction planned around the loading doors.
Food production
Bakery and chilled lines in east and west London are cleaned down and wrapped before they leave, then put back in the order the new site restarts them. See our food and beverages page.
The outer boroughs and the M25
Around Park Royal, Wembley, Enfield and Croydon, trade and light manufacturing firms move racking and test equipment, sometimes out beyond the M25 to a larger building.
Hospitals and universities
When a department on a hospital or university estate changes building, its workshop and laboratory equipment goes across in order and is set up for the manufacturer to commission. See our healthcare and pharma and education pages.
Access and planning for a factory move in London
Points we check on most London relocations:
- Lorries that meet the London rules. Each vehicle has to meet ULEZ and the Direct Vision Standard, and a receiving site may add CLOCS or FORS. We confirm that for every load before dates are fixed.
- Bases and supplies at the receiving unit. Floor, bases, supplies and access each get a date, and we check them before a lorry leaves the old site.
- The way out of the old unit. Shutter sizes and headroom under crane beams decide how each machine leaves, and a roof panel that can come off opens another route. Plenty of London units have little yard, so loading is planned from the road.
- What each slab will carry. We check the floor at both units, including any void beneath, and spread the point loads from skates and jacks with plates or mats.
- Road space and big loads. Where loading needs part of the highway we arrange the traffic management and road closure with the borough, or with Transport for London on its own roads, and notify abnormal loads where a machine needs it.
Keeping production going during the move
Orders can keep going out while the plant changes address. The lines you can spare go first and are running at the new site before the rest follows. A line that can only stop briefly moves over a weekend or inside your shutdown.
When a London lease end and a fit-out fall on different dates, our storage holds the equipment in between. Machines you are not keeping can be removed for sale or disposal in the same visit.
Postcodes and areas we cover
We cover every London postcode and the home counties around the M25:
- Central: the City, Clerkenwell, Holborn, Bloomsbury and Westminster
- East and south east: Hackney, Stratford, Barking, Dagenham, Greenwich and Lewisham
- North and north west: Tottenham, Edmonton, Wood Green, Park Royal and Wembley
- South west and west: Battersea, Wandsworth, Acton, Chiswick and Ealing
- Outer London and beyond: Croydon, Bromley, Kingston, Harrow, Enfield, Romford, Uxbridge and out into Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire
We relocate factories right across the UK and into Europe.
Why London firms choose Synergy Lifting for factory relocation
- Ready for a move out past the M25. Firms leaving London for a bigger building in Essex, Kent or Hertfordshire get both ends planned as one programme.
- A programme worked back from your restart. We plan from the day production has to be running again, and show at survey what it depends on.
- Lifting and reinstallation from one firm. The crew that lifts a press out of the old unit sets it to line in the new one.
- Qualified and accredited. CPCS and NPORS operators, lifts planned to BS 7121, equipment inspected under LOLER and PUWER, SSIP approved, Constructionline Gold Member, certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and members of the Construction Plant-hire Association.
More than factory relocation
A London relocation can draw on these as well:
How a factory relocation works
- Send us both addresses, a rough count of the machines and the date production has to restart.
- Both sites are surveyed and every item logged on the asset register; smaller moves can be priced the same day from a desktop survey.
- The quote arrives with a programme in moving order, backed by method statements, risk assessments and lift plans.
- Our crews extract and pack each machine, then transport it in its planned slot.
- Each machine is levelled and set to line in its new position, then handed over for recommissioning.
Common questions
Our unit opens straight onto the street. How do the machines get out?
Each machine is skated to the shutter and loaded from the highway under a borough licence or closure, or one from Transport for London on its red routes. Lorries come forward one at a time, so the street is taken only while each load goes on.
Can you move our factory from London to a site outside the M25?
Yes. We survey the new site wherever it is, from Essex to mainland Europe, and crate equipment going abroad to match your freight forwarder’s booking.
Can we keep producing while we move?
In most cases, yes, for part of the plant. We move the lines you can spare first and get them running at the new site, then bring the rest across. It means more visits, and it keeps output going while the move is under way. We tell you at survey which parts can overlap.
How are disconnection and recommissioning handled?
We agree who does what at survey and write it into the programme. It is a mix of our crew, your maintenance team and the equipment manufacturers, and everyone knows their part before the first machine moves. Recommissioning is done with your engineers or the manufacturer.
Get a quote for factory relocation in London
- Phone: 020 8068 9512
- Email: london@synergy-lifting.co.uk
Send us both addresses, a rough machine count and the date production has to restart, and we will come back with how the move could run.
We also provide factory relocation in Luton, Reading, Milton Keynes and Brighton. See all the factory relocation locations.