When Function Returns: The Sunrise Logistics Limited Corporate Kitchen Project

If the Kapele Freight project was executed when I was still largely green around the ears, the Sunrise Logistics Limited project was altogether different. By then, I had been an operator in the kitchen design and installation business for more than a decade. In that span, I had encountered—literally—everything the battlefield could throw at me. Nothing could cause me to miss a beat or blink in the face of a challenge.

The reach-out from Sunrise Logistics Limited came via Geraldine, the firm's point of contact, who happened upon Apt Installations' Google Business page. She placed a call, requested a quotation, and set up an appointment. I obliged, and a day or so later, I arrived at Sunrise Logistics Limited's premises in CX48 Business Park, Chloorkop. There would be no boardroom meeting here. Just Geraldine, and later, Mr Maluleke—an easygoing, good-story-telling, chatty fellow tasked to be our day-to-day point of contact. If we needed something—extra help, hands to move items—Mr Maluleke would arrange it all. For my part, Cathy, who had just completed her matric exams, would be my workmate on this undertaking.

But let me not run ahead of myself. First things first.

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The Brief: Familiar, But With a Twist

The brief was practically similar to Kapele's, some ten years earlier: two tiny identical "twin" kitchens—one directly above the other on the two floors—and a staff canteen. The single point of departure, if one could call it such, was Geraldine's insistence—and rightly so—on materials better suited to handling the presence of water and moisture.

Sunrise Logistics Limited's canteen is a very, very busy place. The firm employs a multitude of drivers who work both day and night, all of whom use the canteen facilities. The countertops, the sink, the water mixer—everything is under constant pressure of use. Mixers break easily under such conditions, and soon water starts to damage the kitchen units, which end up swelling and disintegrating. Geraldine was insistent: "I need a board that can handle moisture better—something that resists water properly, please!"

Supawood is not technically waterproof—no melamine-faced product truly is. But it is considerably more resilient than your run-of-the-mill particleboard, which is notorious for swelling and crumbling the moment moisture finds an unprotected edge. Its dense, fine-particle core handles incidental moisture far better, making it a sensible choice for a high-traffic, high-moisture environment like the Sunrise canteen.

After discussion, we settled on Canadian Maple Supawood, chosen for continuity with the existing facilities which were already finished in that grain colour. The kitchen countertops, a beautiful light granite, were still in tip-top condition and would therefore be reused. We did not so much as remove them. Rather, we pulled the old units out from under them, supported the tops until the new units were in place, and it worked perfectly.

The walls would largely remain unscathed here too, though each kitchen would receive a dedicated microwave unit. Initially, the idea was to reuse the heavy, almost archaic Cobra water mixers that had clearly been glamorous in their heyday. But once we unmounted them, we could not find suitable parts to repair the leaks that had gripped them over the years—as Geraldine had forewarned. The mixers would be replaced.

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The Canteen: A Battle Against Time and Grime

With the kitchens out of the way, we turned our attention to the canteen. This was going to be strenuous work.

The canteen faces the warehouse floor—a space where the company's transport fleet of trucks comes to load cargo. Over the years, it had taken a serious battering from exhaust fumes. We began by stripping out the old kitchen cabinetry, removing every unit, every fitting, every trace of the installation that had served its time.

What the stripping revealed was a wall and floor buried under years of accumulated grime. The perfectly clinic-white 200mm x 200mm soft ceramic tiles, usually a paragon of cleanliness and hygiene, had accumulated a stubborn layer of soot. The smoke had, over time, mixed with oily emissions, creating a film that was virtually impossible to scrub off with even the strongest sodium hypochlorite-based detergents on the market.

Cathy and Mr Maluleke, in the foreground, scrubbing the heavily grimed canteen floor. 

But patience was well rewarded. Eventually, the walls and the floor were glisteningly white and clean once again.

We then proceeded to fit the new facilities in place of the old, addressing the leaking water supply pipes and replacing the worn mixer. We designed and installed a dedicated microwave unit. For countertops, we went with battle-tested Saxon Oak Formica Postform, which resulted in a perfect marriage with the Canadian Maple MelaWood cabinets.

As we were about to finish, Geraldine and her colleagues began bringing in bar stools. It became clear what an oasis of tranquillity and brief relaxation the canteen would soon become for the day and night shift drivers and support personnel—a place to pause, to eat, to breathe, away from the diesel and the din.

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Ablutions and Illumination

The brief also included the cleaning and maintenance of the ablution facilities for male workers. This, too, was strenuous work, but again, patience carried us through and soon we were done. I then proceeded to replace the old gallery light fittings with LED tubes that dramatically brightened up the bathroom.

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A Tale of Two Corporate Kitchens

So here again, I was dealing with two office kitchens that, for all intents and purposes, were similar to the earlier brief at Kapele Freight—more than a decade earlier. The principles had not changed. Function still reigned. Sentimentality still kept its distance. The work still demanded precision, durability, and an unwavering commitment to getting the details right.

But what had changed, unmistakably, was me. The young man who had walked into Gideon Botha's boardroom with more bravado than experience was now a seasoned practitioner. The drywall challenge that had once been a first-of-its-kind puzzle was now just another problem to solve. The language of cutlists, moisture-resistant boards, and postformed countertops was now a mother tongue.

Sunrise Logistics Limited did not make me a kitchen designer. Kapele had already done that. Sunrise Logistics Limited was the validation of credentials that more than fifteen years of nuts and bolts, cutlists and countertops, and drywall puzzles had bestowed upon a now not-so-young man.

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Fortunately, all the pictures—both for the kitchens and the canteen—are available and have been curated into a photo album that you can access on this link.

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For further details on my kitchen design and installation services, whether corporate or residential, please reach out.

📞 Call, SMS, or WhatsApp: 063 888 5573

📧 Email: info.aptdesigns@gmail.com

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