Food Retail Distribution and Production Hub: Integrated Design for a 200,000 m² Complex

A food retail distribution hub is not only a warehouse. It is a controlled movement system that connects incoming goods, storage temperature zones, production areas, delivery vehicles, staff operations, and support services for a retail network.

TEBIN worked on an approximately 200,000 m² production and warehouse complex in Central Europe. The project combined ambient storage, chilled storage, frozen storage, production areas, vehicle service, staff support, and auxiliary workshops within one integrated site. Maxim Mionchynskyy acted as Project Manager and Engineering Manager, coordinating the project logic, multidisciplinary scope, and engineering interfaces.

The complex was planned as a central logistics node for a food retail network. Goods arrived by large trucks, moved through receiving and storage zones, and were redistributed to smaller vehicles for city and regional delivery. Part of the warehouse operated as a cross-dock zone, where goods entered and left quickly without long-term storage. Other areas supported accumulation and storage of regular product categories.

Why did one facility need several operating logics?

The hub had to support more than one logistics pattern. Ambient goods, chilled products, frozen goods, semi-finished food production, vehicle service, laundry for workwear, and small internal workshops all had different requirements. Treating them as one generic warehouse would have hidden the actual engineering challenge.

The temperature-controlled part alone included approximately 20,000 m² of chilled storage and approximately 20,000 m² of frozen storage. Chilled areas operated around positive temperatures, while frozen areas required sub-zero conditions. The production area added approximately 16,000 m² for food preparation and semi-finished products connected to the retail network.

Those differences affected envelope performance, slab design, technical rooms, refrigeration loads, drainage, staff movement, fire compartments, and maintenance access. In frozen areas, the slab and ground conditions also had to be considered so that the floor system would not create freezing-related problems below the building.

What support functions were integrated into the site?

The site was planned as a business-support platform for the retail network, not just a storage building. It included facilities for maintaining part of the delivery fleet, so smaller trucks used for daily distribution could be serviced within the same operating ecosystem.

The hub also included internal support functions such as laundry for workwear and workshop areas for simple store-related elements and equipment. The logic was practical: at this scale, the operator could keep some recurring support tasks inside the business instead of sending every service need to external providers.

From a design and engineering perspective, these support functions mattered because they changed the building mix. Vehicle service needs different clearances, doors, drainage, ventilation, fire-safety logic, and utility interfaces than a warehouse. Laundry and production areas introduce water, sewage, hygiene, ventilation, heat, and electrical loads that must be coordinated with the main logistics operation.

How did site logistics shape the design?

The site had to receive long-haul trucks, organize internal movement, support loading and unloading, and send smaller vehicles back out to stores. TEBIN worked on building placement, general plan logic, on-site transport routes, and the movement of goods between outdoor and indoor zones.

Vehicle tracking was important because the client wanted to place as much useful building area as possible on the site while keeping the logistics operation functional. The design had to prove that trucks could enter, turn, queue, dock, leave, and move around service zones without blocking each other.

For a complex of this size, logistics is an engineering interface. A dock arrangement influences yard depth. Yard depth influences site boundaries, fire access, stormwater, and utilities. A production zone influences staff movement, cold-chain routes, and truck staging. The general plan therefore had to be coordinated with the building, not treated as a separate drawing exercise.

What was included in TEBIN's design scope?

TEBIN's scope covered the placement of buildings and structures on the general plan, site logistics, architecture, structures, staff facilities, foundations and coordination with the precast concrete frame concept, water and sewage, electrical systems, heating, cooling, and fire protection. External networks beyond the project boundary and environmental documentation were outside the main TEBIN scope or handled through separate parties.

The structural approach combined TEBIN's design decisions with the logic of a precast concrete frame supplier. TEBIN defined the required building geometry, heights, grids, openings, walls, doors, and functional requirements, while coordinating the frame concept within the broader architectural and engineering package.

Building Information Modeling was used as the coordination environment for the project. The design work connected architecture, structures, building systems, logistics areas, cold storage, production zones, utilities, and site movement in one controlled process.

Project lesson

The main lesson from this project is that a large retail logistics hub is not one building type. It is a network of operating systems: ambient storage, cold chain, production, cross-docking, fleet service, staff support, and site circulation.

The design becomes coherent only when those systems are treated together. For TEBIN, the project showed how multidisciplinary design and engineering can translate a complex retail operation into a coordinated site, building, and building-systems package.