When an operator outgrows their current setup and starts looking at units, the search almost always begins with the wrong number: square footage. How much space do we need? It's the easy question, but not the most important.
A production kitchen is limited by three things that rarely appear in a property advert:
- How much heat and steam it can get rid of?
- How much electrical load it can draw?
- How much waste water it can put down the drain?
These are the questions that actually decide whether a space can take your volume. Get those wrong and a unit that looks perfect on a floor plan simply can't run your operation.
EXTRACTION
Extraction is the single most common reason a unit can't do what an operator wants, and the most expensive to fix after the fact.
Every cooking process throws off heat, steam, grease and odour, and all of it has to go somewhere. A production kitchen running at volume generates far more than a restaurant kitchen, continuously rather than in service peaks, and the extraction system has to be sized for that peak load. Under-size it and the kitchen becomes unworkably hot, fails to clear steam, and, critically, won't pass inspection.
The questions that matter:
Is there an existing extraction system, and what was it sized for?
A unit previously used for light assembly or a low-output kitchen may have extraction nowhere near what heavy cooking demands.
Where does the ductwork run, and where does it terminate?
Extraction has to vent somewhere, usually to roof level, and the route is often the problem. A long or convoluted duct run loses efficiency and costs more.
What's above and around the unit?
This blindsides people. If there's residential property nearby, odour and noise become a planning issue, and the borough can demand carbon filtration, acoustic attenuation and silencers that add significant cost and, sometimes, kill the option entirely.
Grease management.
Heavy cooking means grease in the extraction system, which is a fire risk and a cleaning liability. What's specified, and who maintains it?
The reason extraction tops this list: it's the hardest and most expensive thing to change after you've taken a unit, because it involves the building structure, the roof, and often the neighbours and the council. It's the item most likely to turn a quick fit-out into a long one.
POWER
Electrical capacity is the constraint operators underestimate most, partly because it's invisible until you try to switch everything on.
A production facility running combi ovens, blast chillers, walk-in cold rooms, and continuous refrigeration draws a very different load from a restaurant, and it draws it constantly. The question isn't whether a unit has power. It's whether it has enough, of the right kind, and what it takes to upgrade if it doesn't.
What's the existing supply capacity, and what does the operation actually need?
These are often far apart in an older industrial unit that wasn't built for continuous high load.
What does an upgrade involve?
This is the critical one, because a power upgrade depends on the DNO, the distribution network operator, not on the landlord or the operator. DNO timelines are outside anyone's control and can run to months, which is why power upgrades are one of the most common causes of a delayed opening.
Is the load constant or peaky?
Refrigeration and extraction run around the clock, so a production facility has a high baseload, not just spikes during service. That changes both the capacity needed and the running cost.
The reason power deserves this much attention: unlike most fit-out work, you can't compress the timeline by throwing money or people at it. If the DNO says sixteen weeks, it's sixteen weeks. An operator who discovers a power shortfall after signing has lost that time whether they like it or not.
DRAINAGE
A production kitchen puts a lot of water, and a lot of wash-down, food solids, fats, oils and grease, down the drain. The unit's drainage has to handle both the volume and the content, and older industrial units frequently weren't built for either.
Where are the existing drainage points, and where do you need them?
Production flow dictates where sinks, wash-down points and equipment sit, and if the drainage isn't there, you're either redesigning the layout around the pipes or cutting the floor to move them. Cutting a floor for sub-ground drainage is a serious, expensive job.
Grease management: interceptors and traps.
Fats, oils and grease can't go straight to the sewer. Whether it's grease traps under the sinks or a larger interceptor, something has to catch them, and it has to be maintained
Falls and gullies.
A production floor needs to drain properly for hygiene and wash-down, which means correct floor falls and enough drainage gullies in the right places. Get it wrong and you get standing water, which is both a safety and a compliance problem.
The reason drainage matters despite being invisible: it's under the floor, so fixing it means lifting the floor, which is one of the most disruptive and expensive things you can do to a unit mid-fit-out. It's far cheaper to choose a unit whose drainage already suits your production flow than to rebuild it.
WHY THESE THREE
Square footage tells you whether your equipment fits. Extraction, power and drainage tell you whether it can actually run. An operator can always work with slightly less space than ideal. They cannot work in a unit that can't clear their steam, power their equipment, or drain their wash-down, and all three are difficult, slow and expensive to change once you're committed.
This is also the single biggest advantage of moving into a unit that's already a working production facility rather than fitting out a shell. In a purpose-built or already-adapted unit, these three have been solved and proven, sized for production, signed off, and running. You're not discovering a power shortfall or a drainage problem eighteen months and a large cheque into a build. You're walking into infrastructure that already works.
The operators who get this right ask about extraction, power and drainage before they ask about anything else. The ones who don't tend to learn why the hard way.
Weighing up a unit? Talk to us about what your production actually requires
