Nestle is strengthening its production capacity in Europe, investing more than SFr54 million (Eu45 million) to extend its Purina pet food factory in Hungary. The extension to the factory in the town of Buk will create about 150 new jobs by the end of 2012.

Nestle’s latest investment in the factory is part of its long-term commitment to developing its European operations. Earlier this year the company invested over SFr265 million in a new Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory in Germany, while in Switzerland it invested SFr300 million in a new Nespresso factory, creating 400 direct jobs.

The new factory extension will be equipped with four new production lines to double its manufacturing capacity of Nestle Purina pouch pet food brands such as Felix and Friskies. It also produces dry and canned Purina pet food such as Darling, Felix, Friskies and Dog Chow to meet the growing demand for the company’s pet care brands in Central and Eastern Europe.

The new factory extension aims to be operational by March 2013. It follows a SFr45 million in a factory extension in 2011 to open four new production lines and increase the number of employees to 600 people.

Nestle began manufacturing products such as Maggi in Hungary in 1974. Today it operates four factories and employs over 1,750 people. The company bought the Buk pet food factory in 1998 to produce Purina pet food products.

In Hungary, Nestle uses chocolate from the UK to make its After Eight and Kit Kat hollow chocolate products at its site in Diosgyor. Nestle coffee and powdered beverages including Nescafe and Nesquik are produced in Szerencs for export to other European markets. Nestle Aquarel and Theodora bottled mineral and spring water brands are manufactured in the village of Kekkut.

Nestle is strengthening its premium portioned coffee brand Nespresso by investing SFr300 million (Eur250 million) to meet growing consumer demand worldwide. The company is to build a new factory in Romont in the Swiss canton of Fribourg to increase coffee capsule production.

Nespresso’s third production site will boost employment in the region, creating 400 new direct jobs in the long term. It is the latest multi-million Swiss Franc investment that Nestle has made in Nespresso in the last three years. SFr300 million was invested to build Nespresso’s second production and distribution centre in Avenches,Switzerland, in 2009.

“Some 25 years after creating the portioned coffee segment, the third Nespresso production centre will provide the capacity needed to sustain growth in Europe and develop our brand globally,” says Patrice Bula, executive vice president for Nestle, responsible for the Strategic Business Units, Marketing, Sales and Nespresso.

Construction of the factory is due to begin before the end of the year. It will be operational by 2015. The factory will be one of three Nespresso production sites in Switzerland. In addition to Avenches, Nestle opened its first Nespresso production centre in Orbe.

Nespresso has continued to grow since it was launched by Nestle over a quarter of a century ago. Last year, Nespresso achieved sales of more than SFr3 billion and growth of about 20%. Strengthening its capabilities in emerging and developed markets, it has recently opened boutiques in Dohain the state of Qatar, Seoul in South Korea and Innsbruck in Austria. There will be over 300 Nespresso boutiques worldwide by the end of 2012.

As part of Nestle’s continued effort to construct more environmentally friendly buildings worldwide, the new factory in Romont will use renewable energy produced by its coffee roasting technology to heat the building.

PepsiCo UK is investing £15.2 million in its Walkers snacks manufacturing campus at Leicester. The investment will support the introduction of a new production line making kettle-fried potato crisps, such as the Red Sky and Walkers Extra Crunchy varieties.

PepsiCo is also hiring 110 people as part of the expansion programme. First established in Leicester in 1982, the Walkers site, situated in the Beaumont Leys area of the city, employs over 2,000 people.

As PepsiCo celebrates its 30th anniversary in the area, a number of long serving members of staff are reaching retirement this year. PepsiCo is now looking to both fill these vacancies whilst also creating new roles as the site expands. In the past year alone, Walkers has employed over 300 people from the Leicester area to help boost the production team.

PepsiCo has invested £14.4 million and £9.3 million in its Quaker Oats site at Cupar, Scotland and its distribution site in Peterlee, respectively this year.

Irish dairy co-operative Dairygold is preparing to invest Eur130 million in its processing facilities in Malow, Mitchelstown and Mogeely. The move is in preparation for the ending of milk quotas in 2015 which offers Dairygold its first real opportunity in more than 30 year for substantial dairy growth.

Dairygold currently processes about 960 million litres of milk annually (equivalent to 18% of the Irish milk pool) from its 3,000 dairy suppliers. The planned capacity expansion would allow Dairygold to process an extra 23 million litres of milk per week, in addition to its current peak of 30 million litres per week.

According to chief executive Jim Woulfe, the Dairygold team is excited about the opportunities and confident about the company`s ability to process and market up to 50% increase in milk production by 2020.

Nestle is strengthening its dairy industry interests in Asia with the opening of a new UHT milk factory in Sri Lanka. The factory builds on the company’s recent investments in dairy development in China and India. It will produce ready-to-drink brands such as Milo and Nespray at Nestle’s existing manufacturing site in the Sri Lankan province of Kurunegala.

“Our latest investment will have a ripple effect across the local community by helping our company make a positive impact on thousands of suppliers and farmers in the country,” says Alois Hofbauer, managing director of Nestle Lanka. “The new manufacturing capabilities also mean we can produce new products for our Sri Lankan consumers.”

The SFr5.8 million factory is part of a SFr77 million (Eur64 million) total investment in Sri Lanka over the next few years. Two other factories producing Maggi noodles and Nestle brand malt beverages were opened on the site in the last 12 months.

Nestle has supported the Sri Lankan dairy sector since the 1980s. Today Nestle Lanka’s has three UHT milk factories. Nestle isSri Lanka’s single largest private sector collector of fresh milk, procuring fresh milk from over 15,000 local dairy farmers every day.

The new UHT milk factory is part of Nestle’s dairy investment programme in Asia. The company constructed a new dairy farming institute in Shuangcheng in Heilongjiang province, China, in January.

Nestle India has developed milk production in the region since it built its first factory in Moga in 1961. The company now has eight factories in the country. Over the years, Nestle has invested to develop the area around that first factory, setting up milk collection points and training farmers to improve productivity and quality.

Scotland’s most historic and successful brewery, Tennent Caledonian Breweries, has opened a new £4 million state-of-the-art bottling line at its famous Wellpark site in Glasgow. Situated within Wellpark’s 2000 square metre packaging hall, the new £4 million line gives Tennent Caledonian the largest and most technologically advanced beer bottling operation in Scotland, with the capacity to run 50,000 bottles per hour – for Tennent’s brands and for contract business that will now be attracted to Scotland from across the UK.

Tennent Caledonian, which is now part of cider and beer producer C&C Group, has been brewing for over 450 years. The site also houses Tennent’s Training Academy, a £1 million centre of training excellence for the pub and hospitality industry.

The launch of the bottling line is part of an ambitious plan of growth and development at Tennent Caledonian, resulting from an inward investment programme from C&C Group following its purchase of the business in 2009. The development programme also includes: 50 new jobs created, both at the bottling line and in other areas of the business; a renaissance of the company’s international ambitions, with last year seeing Tennent’s Export once again being shipped to Ireland, Canada, Australia and Italy; and a renewed focus on new product development that has seen the company launch a major new beer for the Scottish market, Caledonia Best, which is made using barley sourced 100 per cent in Scotland.

In Ireland, Tennent’s Lager is now sold in over 1200 pubs. In Canada, Tennent’s was launched at the Toronto Beer Festival in September 2011 and has since gained scale with the support of a local distributor. Similarly, in Australia, Tennent’s was launched last July and is now listed in Australia’s top two leading supermarket chains. 2012 will also see a renewed emphasis on Italy, with the launch of a range of three new beers; Tennent’s Scotch Ale, Tennent’s 1885 Lager and Tennent’s Extra Lager. 

Steven Annand, commercial managing director of Tennent Caledonian, comments: “Tennent’s is a very successful Scottish brand and C&C Group is focused on strengthening its domestic base here in Scotland, growing Tennent’s international markets and creating jobs here in Scotland in the process. Our new bottling line here at Wellpark will underpin this growth story and enable us to introduce new products both here in Scotland and overseas.

Tennent’s Lager is known as an industry pioneer, recognised as being the first commercial lager to be produced to scale in Scotland (and one of the first in the UK) and at the forefront of introducing canned and draught lager to the UK. Tennent Caledonian was one of the pioneers of bottled beer, with a patent for ‘stopped bottles’ secured back in the 1890s.

CAPTION:

Pictured at the launch of the new bottling line are (left to right): Stephen Glancey, group chief executive of C&C Group; Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who opened the line; John Gilligan, sales managing director of Tennent Caledonian; and Steven Annand, commercial managing director of Tennent Caledonian.

The Coca-Cola Company has opened its 42 and largest bottling plant in China. Located in Yingkou, Liaoning, the new production facility spans an area of more than 170,000 square meters (42 acres), the represents a $160 million investment in China and is part of a three-year, $4 billion investment plan announced last year that underscores the Coca-Cola system’s confidence in China and its fast-growing beverage market.

Upon completion, this third bottling plant in Liaoning, operated by Coca-Cola Liaoning (Central) Beverages, is expected to reach an annual production capacity of more than 5 billion servings of sparkling and still beverages, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Minute Maid and Ice Dew. Coca-Cola plans to invest in nine production lines at the new facility, with four currently in operation.

The plant will directly create 500 jobs and generate an additional 5,000 job opportunities in the supporting industries. Together with two other existing plants in Shenyang and Dalian, this new investment will allow Coca-Cola to provide better services and refreshing products to 44 million consumers in Liaoning Provinceand enhance its contribution to local development.

“This $160 million commitment to Yingkou is more than an investment in Coca‑Cola’s expansion to capitalize on the fast-growing China market. It is also an important step by Coca-Cola to assist in the development of local communities throughout China,” says Muhtar Kent, chairman and chief executive of The Coca-Cola Company. “China is a vast growth market for Coca-Cola. As we work to double the size of our global business in this decade, China will play a critical role.”

China is one of the fastest-growing markets for The Coca-Cola Company, with volume expanding by 13% in 2011, maintaining double-digit growth in nine of the last 10 years. Consumption of Coca-Cola products in China now represents approximately 8% of the company’s global volume. Coca-Cola announced last year that starting in 2012 it and its Chinese bottling partners will make a $4 billion investment in new infrastructure, partnerships, innovation, sustainability and brand building over the next three years.

Vion Food UK is investing £11.5 million to enhance its processing facilities at Cookstown in Northern Ireland, with the creation of 164 new jobs. The Cookstown facility is the largest pig processing site inNorthern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and among the largest in the UK, producing pork, sausages, bacon and cooked meats.

The company’s investment will enable it to install new equipment, which will improve animal welfare and increase processing capacity. It is also investing in improved chilling technology, as some of the existing chills date back to the original construction of the plant in 1938. Invest Northern Irelandhas offered Vion £960,000, which includes £244,500 of support through its Jobs Fund.

The enhancements to the company’s processing facilities will allow it to become more efficient and increase profitability as well as ensuring that the pigs are handled in the most humane way possible.

Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster pictured with Seamus Carr, managing director of Vion.

As well as selling its products under the Cookstown brand the company, which currently employs over 700 people, supplies major customers such as Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury, ASDA, Henderson Group, Musgrave, Samworth Bros and Dew Valley. With the enhanced processing equipment in place the Vion facility in Cookstown will continue to underpin the future sustainability of the Northern Ireland pig industry.

Seamus Carr, managing director of Vion, says: “Our strategy is to build on the success of the Cookstown brand by investing in our people and in our processes. We anticipate a substantial increase in productivity and sales as a result of this investment. Invest NI’s support has meant we can move forward quickly with the project and ensure the continuing viability of the facility in Cookstown.”

Vion Food UK produces and processes high quality beef, lamb, pork, bacon and chicken as well as a wide range of convenience products such as sausages, cooked meats and added value cooked chicken. It has extensive facilities across the UK from farms and hatcheries to primary production, processing and packing, and supplies products according to customer and market demands. The business is primarily focused on the UK retail market but also includes important foodservice and wholesale clients within its portfolio. Vion Food UK is part of the Netherlands-based Vion Group.

William Grant & Sons, the owner of Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey brand, plans to invest in a new, state-of-the-art pot still whiskey and malt whiskey distillery in Tullamore, bringing whiskey production back to the Irish town for the first time since the original distillery closed in 1954. The €35 million investment will meet the long-term production demands for Tullamore Dew, the world’s second largest Irish whiskey brand, which is currently growing by over 15% annually and is central to the growth plans of William Grant & Sons which bought the brand in July 2010.

William Grant & Sons has agreed principal terms and is in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of a 58 acre site at Clonminch on the outskirts of Tullamore from Offaly County Council. The location offers a plentiful supply of natural, quality spring water from the nearby Slieve Bloom mountains, ideal for the triple distillation process used in Tullamore Dew.

Work on the new distillery, which will utilise the latest in green technology is scheduled to begin later this year, subject to planning permission, and will support in the region of 100 construction jobs during the two-year building phase. When combined with the new Tullamore Dew Visitor Centre, scheduled to open in September 2012, the total number employed by the firm in the town will rise to around 25. Tullamore Dew will continue to be bottled at its current facility in Clonmel, where it employs over 60 people.

“This investment by William Grant & Sons underpins our long-term commitment to Tullamore Dew, the town of Tullamore and Ireland. It represents an important next step in the long-term growth and development of the Tullamore Dew brand,” says Stella David, chief executive of William Grant & Sons. “We’re excited about bringing whiskey distilling back to Tullamore Dew’s roots for the first time in almost 60 years.”

William Grant & Sons’ group marketing director, Maurice Doyle, comments: “The new distillery will not only cement William Grant & Sons’ presence in Ireland, but reinforces the fact that the brand is now firmly rooted back in its original home of Tullamore. Our distillery will combine traditional distillation practices with the very latest in modern and green technologies to prepare the brand for future growth, while making sure the exact same taste and quality which has made Tullamore Dew famous around the world continues to be delivered. Irish whiskey is a major growth story internationally and with this investment we’re looking forward to putting Tullamore Dew and the Midlands region back on the map as one ofIreland’s premier whiskey producing regions.”

Grocery retailer Morrisons plans to become the UK’s largest fresh food manufacturer. New plans include a £21 million investment to increase the company’s capacity at its abattoir in Colne, Lancashire. Morrisons is the only retailer to buy livestock from the farm and process them at its abattoirs in Colne, Spalding, Lincolnshire and Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

The expansion at Colne will mean an extra 6,000 pigs will be processed at the site every week, raising capacity from 24,000 a week up to 31,000. Meat from the abattoir will be shipped into the newly acquired Morrisons fresh meat packing facility in Winsford, Cheshire, cooked meat production in Deeside, North Wales, and some pies and pastries produced at Morrisons’ Farmers Boy site in Bradford.

There will also be investments in fruit, vegetables and salad packing to add to the company’s recent investments in seafood and meat processing. Morrisons is to complete a £200 million investment in the expansion of its manufacturing food arm by 2013. This will mean it will buy more fresh food directly from farmers than its rivals.

“If market conditions continue, we will become theUK’s largest manufacturer of fresh food by 2015. This investment sets us apart from other retailers and means that we will be the biggest customer for UK farms,” explains Dalton Philips, chief executive of Morrisons, Britain’s fourth largest food retailer. “This will continue to build on our record of serving the freshest and best food that our farmers have to offer with minimal waste in the supply chain.”

By making more of its fresh products, Morrisons can control quality, cut out middlemen and deal directly with farmers. This means Morrisons buys and make use of whole crops of fruit and vegetables or whole animals. Vion UK is currently Britain’s biggest manufacturer of fresh food, with Morrisons the second largest.

Diageo is planning to develop new warehouse storage facilities for Scotch whisky at Cluny in Fife, costing in the region of £150 million. The world’s largest spirits producer is reported to be seeking permission from Fife Council to construct 46 warehouses for the maturation of Scotch whisky stocks in line with the continued expansion of production at its Cameronbridge distillery.

The proposed project, which would take about seven years to complete, is expected to generate 200 long-term construction jobs and around 40 operational posts.

‘‘I think sales are going to continue to grow over the next 12 years – that is how long it takes to make Johnnie Walker Black Label – and that means we need more warehouses,” comments Richard Bedford, director of grain distilling at Diageo. “We have not been out for detail design or spec or tendering yet but the estimated investment would be £150 million. That could easily be give or take £20-odd million as we don’t know the outcome for the detailed ground survey or the plant we would want to install.”

Tesco has announced that it will create 20,000 new jobs in the UK over the next two years through a significant investment in customer service, refreshing existing stores and opening new ones. At the heart of the investment programme, Tesco plans to deliver new levels of excellence in customer service across its stores. Starting immediately, Britain’s top retailer will invest significantly in additional staff hours and training to boost the customer experience – including on fresh produce, fresh meat, bakery and the counter services that customers value the most.

The new jobs announcement also reflects a substantial programme to refresh hundreds of existing stores, improving space and layout and the overall shopping experience, as well as opening new stores. In strengthening its customer service team by 20,000 new recruits, Tesco expects to focus on giving opportunities to young people currently unemployed. As well as providing a crucial first rung on the career ladder for each individual, this move will be a major step in tackling the current record levels of youth unemployment.

Tesco will also give young people the opportunity to carry on learning by expanding its apprenticeship programme to provide 10,000 apprenticeships, with a significant proportion for new starters. The measures mark the first stage in Tesco’s planned new investment in its UK business.

“At the core of this investment is our determination to deliver the best shopping experience for our customers, bar none. We will invest in more staff on the sales floor at busy times, greater expertise and help in the crucial areas of fresh food, and enhanced quality and service across our stores at all times,” comments Richard Brasher, chief executive of Tesco UK. “To deliver this we’re going to strengthen our customer service team – 20,000 more staff across our stores over the next two years.”

Tesco is the UK’s largest private sector employer with over 290,000 staff, and 70,000 young people under the age of 25 – a quarter of its workforce.

Facing stiff competition from rivals, Tesco’s share of the UK grocery market slipped to 29.7% – its lowest level since May 2005 – according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel, for the 12 weeks ending 19th February 2012.

Carlsberg UK is investing £20 million in a new bottling plant at its brewer site inNorthampton, where the Carlsberg, Tuborg and San Miguel brands are produced. The 7,000 sq m facility, which has now been approved by West Northamptonshire Development Corporation’s planning committee is due to come on stream in 2013.

“Carlsberg UK is committed to Northampton and committed to brewing in the UK.  The green light on our plans to expand our brewery means we will create up to 60 new jobs in Northampton and be able to bottle double the amount of beer,” comments Matt Callan, supply chain director of Carlsberg UK.

The new facility will complement an existing bottling plant and three canning lines. Carlsberg UK completed an earlier £40 million expansion programme at Northampton in October 2011. This entailed expanding brewing capacity, the introduction of a third canning line and measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce waste.

The expansion of the Northampton site is in line with Carlsberg UK’s decision to close its brewery in Leeds in order to centralise production.

Nestle is strengthening one of its fastest growing businesses in Europe with a Eur220 million (over SFr265 million) investment in building a new Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory in Germany, the largest market for the brand worldwide. Nescafe Dolce Gusto is Nestle’s machine and capsule ‘coffee shop experience-at-home’ system for both hot and cold drinks. It offers nearly 30 coffee, Nesquik and Nestea varieties.

The factory, located in Schwerin, will create 450 jobs. With 12 new production lines, it will become operational by the end of 2013. Located about 100 km from Hamburg, the biggest European port for coffee imports, the factory aims to produce about two billion coffee capsules a year for export to the rest of Germany, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

“This is one of our biggest investments in Europe and highlights our continuous investment in our capacity for innovation,” says Laurent Freixe, Nestle’s zone director for Europe. “Nescafe Dolce Gusto is the leader in the portioned coffee market in 20 countries. With a growth rate of over 50%, it is one of the fastest growing businesses for Nestle inEurope.”

The Schwerin site is the company’s third Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory. Last year, Nestle invested SFr64 million in the Nescafe Dolce Gusto site at its Nescafe factory in Girona, near Barcelona, Spain.

The company’s first Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory, which opened in 2006 in Tutbury in the United Kingdom, is already running at full capacity. Last year Nestle invested £110 million in the site to triple production.

The Schwerin factory is Nestle’s latest investment in Germany– the company’s fourth largest market globally.

The Scottish Salmon Company has unveiled plans to invest over £40 million to expand its business over the next five years, resulting in the creation of over 100 jobs across the West Coast and islands of Scotland. The Scottish based and operated salmon farming company’s five-year development plan envisages establishing ten new farm sites, increasing farming capacity and developing its harvesting, processing and freshwater operations.

The fully-integrated seafood currently operates from over 50 sites and in 2010 it reported an annual turnover of £92.4 million. In the past two years, the company has more than doubled staff numbers from 160 to 380 and invested £30 million on developments such as refurbishing the Marybank processing facility, acquiring West Minch Salmon, developing new sites and upgrading existing sites. Last year, the company reported it had produced 24,000 tonnes of salmon. Its ambition is to increase this number to 40,000 tonnes in 2016.

“The Scottish Salmon Company produces premium, fresh Scottish salmon with strong and growing demand in the marketplace. To satisfy this, we require to develop our farming and processing capability,” comments Stewart McLelland, chief executive of The Scottish Salmon Company. “People are key to our vision for expansion. We are keen to bring talent into our business, developing skills, and experience to support our growth plans and that of the overall industry.”

He continues: “We are committed to the communities and economies in which we work and understand the real benefit that developing business and providing employment has in these rural locations.”

Around half the jobs are planned for the Western Isles, with the others in the company’s operational areas throughout the Highlands and Argyll and Bute. The Scottish Salmon Company is currently in the process of scoping, consulting on and lodging planning applications for new fish farming sites.

An infrastructure investment of between £1.5 million and £2 million would be required to develop each of the sites. All sites will be developed to the RSPCA’s ‘Freedom Food’ standard, which governs farming principles such as the stocking density, fish welfare and harvest.

Arla Foods UK has commenced building work for its £150 million fresh milk dairy in Aylesbury. Work started on site on 6 February 2012, and is expected to take 75 weeks to complete.

Once completed, the dairy will process and pack up to one billion litres of milk per year. The project is being 100% funded by Arla and will provide a £20 million annual wages bill, which will have a positive impact on the local economy. It will also create 700 new jobs and up to 1,000 construction jobs over the next 18 months.

“We are delighted to be underway with the development of this new dairy. We have ambitions for it to be the world’s first zero carbon fresh milk dairy, which will help Arla achieve its growth ambitions in the UK,” says Peter Lauritzen, chief executive of Arla Foods UK. “The new facility will create a platform for the company to grow its fresh milk business, allowing us to deliver our UK growth strategy.”

UK independent bakery company Pukka Pies has officially opened a new£7 million extension to its factory in Leicestershire, facilitating a 50% increase in production. Established in 1963, Pukka Pies currently produces over 60 million pies annually and employs more than 300 people. It supplies about 12,000 fish and chip shops across the UK as well as supermarkets and more than 40 football clubs.

The new extension, which incorporates a £2.2 million state-of-the-art refrigeration plant, increased cold storage and new distribution docks, has already resulted in the creation of 20 new jobs. It leaves the family-run company well placed to continue with its UK expansion. Last year, Pukka Pies, despite the difficult trading environment, managed to increase sales by 10% to £38 million.

“In challenging economic times, we have enjoyed excellent levels of growth and this new factory will enable us to continue our success story. We continue to provide the highest-quality products to our customers and this new extension will ensure that we retain our position as the UK’s leading manufacturer of branded hot eaten pies,” says Tim Storer, co managing director of Pukka Pies, who runs the company with his brother Andrew: “We are now absolutely cutting edge with our environmental credentials and the extension has improved our working conditions for our employees, too.”

Scottish soft drinks manufacturer AG Barr is reported to be planning to extend its presence still further south of the border by building a new £40 million bottling and distribution centre in England. AG Barr currently operates factories at Cumbernauld, Dunbar and Forfar in Scotland along with a production site at Tredegar in South Wales. In addition to its flagship Irn-Bru brand, the company’s portfolio includes Orangina, Strathmore, Tizer and Rubicon, which AG Barr acquired for £60 million in 2008 to enter the UK fruit juice market.

Nestle UK has unveiled proposals for a further £200 million extension to its Nescafe factory in Tutbury, Derbyshire, but will close its coffee factory at Hayes. The investment at Tutbury is in addition to the £110 million extension to the Nescafe Dolce Gusto facility at the site announced in November 2011. For the first time in the UK all forms of coffee production including freeze dried, spray dried and pod technology, will be brought together on one site.

However, production at Nestle’s coffee factory in Hayes will transfer to Tutbury, leading to the eventual closure of the Hayes site, where 230 people are employed, in 2014. The Hayes factory plays a vital role in Nescafe production. However, it is not feasible to redevelop the Hayes site to create the manufacturing facility Nestle UK needs for the future.

125 new jobs will be created in Tutbury through the transfer of production. This is in addition to the 300 new jobs in Tutbury announced in November 2011.

Paul Grimwood, chairman and chief executive of Nestle UK & Ireland, says: “Over the next three years, we are investing £500 million to establish our next generation of world class manufacturing facilities in the UK. The proposed restructuring, which will bring all our coffee manufacturing together at Tutbury, is a key part of this overall investment programme.”

Over the past five years Nestlé has undertaken a multi-million pound investment programme, establishing its next generation of world class competitive manufacturing facilities in the UK. This investment programme includes:

* £200 million spent transforming Nestle’s major confectionery factory in York to create a best in class manufacturing facility;

* creating a £40 million European centre of excellence for Nescafe Cappuccino in Dalston, Cumbria;

* establishing a £20 million seasonal confectionery manufacturing centre in Halifax;

building a new £35 million bottling plant in Buxton that will be one of the most environmentally sustainable operations of its kind in the world when it opens later this year;

* a £7 million expansion for Nestlé’s global Research & Development centre for confectionery in York.

Nestle UK & Ireland has approximately 7,000 employees across 19 sites and comprises: Nestle UK (Food & Beverage, Confectionery and Food Services), Nestle Ireland, Nestle Purina Petcare, Nestle Waters, Nestle Nutrition, Jenny Craig, Nespresso, Cereal Partners UK (a joint venture with General Mills) and Lactalis-Nestle Chilled Dairy (a joint venture with Lactalis).

Kraft Foods plans to invest £50 million in its UK confectionery manufacturing operations while cutting the workforce by 200 people. The 200 jobs will be shed at Kraft’s sites at Bournville, Birmingham, Chirk in Wrexham, north Wales, and Marlbrook in Herefordshire. The cuts will be made through redeployment and voluntary redundancies over two years from March 2012.

Kraft will invest £6 million in a new biscuits line at its site in Sheffield, which produces sugar confectionery products such as Trebor, Maynards and Bassetts, to facilitate the manufacture of Oreo and BelVita biscuits in the UK for the first time.

The remaining investment will be made on a range of projects to upgrade infrastructure, speed up production, reduce waste and improve energy efficiency at three chocolate confectionery manufacturing sites. This includes £13.5 million at Bournville, £3.4 million at Chirk and £2.6 million at Marlbrook.

“The ambition is for Bournville, Chirk and Marlbrook to remain at the centre of British food manufacturing and of the Kraft Foods network,” says Neil Chapman, Kraft’s manufacturing director, UK chocolate. “We continue to invest in our people and facilities, so we can increase productivity and transform our business.”

In response to the continued growth of its Jameson Irish whiskey brand on world markets, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard has announced a €100 million investment in the expansion of its distillery in Midleton, CountyCork. In the year to end June 2011, a total of 3.4 million cases of Jameson were sold worldwide.

The Distillery in Midleton is now operating at full capacity and in order to meet the continued growing demand for Jameson, an expansion of the distillery is necessary. As part of the investment, sixty manufacturing and technical jobs will be created, bringing the company’s total employee numbers inIrelandto 560. Thirty of the jobs will be at the distillery in Midleton and thirty at the company’s bottling plant at Fox & Geese inDublin.

An architect’s rendition of the proposed new potstill stillhouse at the Midleton Distillery in Cork.

While upholding the heritage and traditions of whiskey distilling at Midleton, the expansion programme will include contemporary best-practice methods in environmental sustainability. Per litre of alcohol distilled, there will be a reduction of 33% in energy consumed and 20% in water consumed respectively.

Master distiller, Barry Crockett, with barrels of Jameson whiskey.

Earlier this year, Irish Distillers announced a further Eur100 million investment in a new whiskey maturation facility in Dungourney near Midleton.

“Jameson is now in its twenty-third consecutive year of growth and is experiencing double-digit growth in forty markets,” says Anna Malmhake, chairman and chief executive of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard. “With this investment, we are confirming Midleton, where the tradition of distilling dates back to 1825, as the global centre of Irish whiskey production.”

Irish Distillers Group was formed in 1966, when a merger took place between Irish whiskey distillers John Power & Son, John Jameson & Son and the Cork Distillery Company. In an attempt to reverse the decline in Irish whiskey sales, the board of directors decided to close the existing distilleries in Cork and Dublin, and to consolidate production at a new purpose-built facility.

A site alongside the existing distillery in Midleton was chosen as the location for the new distillery, as there was no room for expansion in Dublin. Both the Old Jameson Distillery and the Old Midelton Distillery currently operate as visitor centres attracting close to 300,000 visitors annually. Following an early unsolicited takeover offer and one of the most protracted battles in Irish corporate history made by GrandMet, Allied-Lyons and Guinness, Irish Distillers was taken over by Pernod Ricard in June 1988 with the support of the management and employees.

Coca-Cola Enterprises is demonstrating its commitment to manufacturing in Great Britain with a £50 million investment programme across three of its sites. The investment at its Wakefield, East Kilbride and Sidcup manufacturing facilities forms a crucial part of CCE’s strategy to grow its business whilst reducing the impact of its operations on the environment, with sustainable innovation at the heart of the £50 million programme.

Approximately £30 million is being invested in a new automated warehouse at Wakefield, which is the largest and most environmentally efficient bottling plant of its kind in Europe. Since 2009, the site has sent zero waste to landfill and has recently been certified to the new international energy management standard, ISO 50001 by SGS United Kingdom. The new facility will increase Wakefield’s storage capacity by 102%, which means that products manufactured at the site will be delivered to customers directly, rather than via external warehouses, saving approximately 500,000 road miles per year.

CCE is also investing £5.4 million in a number of projects at its East Kilbride site. These include the introduction of a new energy-efficient bottle blowing facility that will produce lightweight PET bottles, reducing the amount of PET required, and a state-of-the-art packaging machine that removes the need to use cardboard in the packaging of multi-pack products.

An investment of £15 million is boosting production capabilities at CCE’s Sidcup site – a new canning line will raise the site’s capacity by an additional 20 million cases of product per year. Innovations in the technology used on the new canning line mean that it will use 20% less water, and it will help reduce the site’s carbon footprint by 610 tonnes in 2012.

Simon Baldry, managing director of Coca-Cola Enterprises in GB, says: “We are committed to manufacturing in this country and are proud that 95% of what we sell is made in Great Britain. The £50 million investment is crucial to developing our business in line with our fundamental objective to grow more, while minimising our impact on the environment.”

CCE is one of the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottlers. It is the sole licensed bottler for products of The Coca-Cola Company in Belgium, continental France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. In Great Britain, CCE employs around 4,500 people across England, Scotland and Wales at manufacturing sites, regional offices and depots.

Danone is to invest Eur6.2 million to expand capacity at its bottled water production plant at Salvetat in France. Part of the expenditure will be used to drill for new water sources, with Eur1 million a year allocated for this purpose.

Danone also plans to construct a new 5,000 sq m warehouse to store 3 million bottles of water produced by the site each week. Danone had already committed investment of Eur3 million last year to extend the capacity of the packaging line at Salvetat and to carry out other improvements to the operation.

The factory employs about thirty people and volume sales of the Salvetat brand of sparkling mineral water have risen by 28% this year. The brand currently holds15.5% of the French carbonated water market, up from 7.9% last year.

Nestle is investing £110 million in its Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory in the UK, creating 300 new jobs and tripling coffee capsule production. The investment will expand the factory, located in Tutbury in Derbyshire, and its workforce. It is the latest in a series of multi-million pound investments Nestle has made in the UK over the last five years.

These include £200 million to transform its confectionery factory inYork, £40 million to create a European centre of excellence for Nescafe Cappuccino in Cumbria, and most recently, £35 million to build a new water bottling factory in Buxton.

“We are creating our next generation of world class competitive manufacturing facilities,” says Paul Grimwood, chairman and chief executive of Nestle UK and Ireland. “We need to continue to innovate to remain ahead of the market and are committed to the ongoing modernisation of ourUKmanufacturing capabilities.” Nestle employs about 7,000 staff across 19 sites in theUK.

The factory workforce at Tutbury has grown from 160 to 500 employees since 2006 and will increase to 800 by 2013, following the expansion of the site. Some of the 300 new employees at Tutbury will form part of the first intake of the ‘Nestle Academy’. This new initiative will offer young people apprenticeships, graduate programmes and on the job training to help them build a lasting career with Nestle.

The factory in Tutbury is one of only two production sites for Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee capsules in the world. The other is located in Girona, Spain.

The investment will equip the Tutbury factory with 12 new high speed production lines to triple its output. It currently produces about four million capsules a day. More than 90% of the capsules will be exported to more than 38 countries around the world. They will also be sold in the UK. Nestle has invested more than £100 million in the factory over the past five years to strengthen its position as a leading Nescafe production site.

Nestle manufactures a variety of iconic brands in the UK. These include: Kit Kat, the country’s number one selling biscuit, Quality Street confectionery, Nescafe soluble coffee, and Shredded Wheat cereal. The company had sales of SFr3.7 billion (£2.6 billion) in the UK in 2010. Nestle is one of the UK’s major food exporters, selling products worth more than £260 million each year to 50 countries around the world.

Nestle Waters is investing more than £35 million in a new state-of-the-art factory at Buxton in England. The culmination of many years of research and development, the factory will be one of Europe’s most innovative and efficient bottling facilities when it opens in Spring 2012.

The new factory based at Waterswallows in Buxton will, for the first time, combine the Nestle Waters UK bottling facility with a warehousing capability. The new bottling lines will significantly reduce the site’s total energy output, as well as producing the lightest weight bottled water bottles made in the UK. The innovative new bottle design will use an average of 25% less PET plastic than the current design, and will be used across the entire still range of Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestle Pure Life.

Paolo Sangiorgi, managing director Nestle Waters UK, says: “Demand for our bottled water brands has seen double digit growth over the last three years. This major investment in a state-of-the-art factory in Buxton clearly demonstrates our commitment to our market leading portfolio of bottled water.”

The new site will enable Nestle Waters to continue to decrease the amount of water used in its manufacturing. In addition, by the end of 2012 the site aims to be certified zero waste to landfill.

As part of the factory’s development Nestle Waters is working to achieve an ‘excellent’ rating within the BREEAM environmental certification scheme. The certification assesses the innovative solutions used to minimize the environmental impact of the building, the operation’s running costs and the site’s transport infrastructure and ecology.

On the new site in Buxton, classic Derbyshire dry stone walls will feature strongly within the design and will be used to reinstate field patterns and define site boundaries. A sustainable drainage system will also manage the water that runs off from the new site. Options for utilising the heat generated by the bottling lines to heat the warehouse and office areas are also being considered. Improving biodiversity is another important area which has been taken into consideration as part of the new site’s design.

Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of cocoa and chocolate products, has inaugurated an extension to its dedicated spray-drying production facility in Kagerod in southern Sweden. This SFr10 million (Eur8 million) investment increases the capacity of Barry Callebaut’s centre of competence for beverages for producing spray dried products by up to 50%.

With the capacity extension at its specialty production site, Barry Callebaut will be able to further grow the company’s Gourmet & Specialties Products business, serving professional users with convenient products offered under a variety of beverages brands. The newly installed spray tower will commence production in December 2011. The capacity increase will partly be used for fulfilling a long-term supply agreement Barry Callebaut signed with an international specialty coffee company at the end of 2010.

Juergen Steinemann, chief executive pf Barry Callebaut, says: “The inauguration of the new spray tower in Kagerod marks another important milestone in growing our Gourmet & Specialties Products business. In the last decade we have continuously invested in our Beverages business and built an innovative center of competence in the south of Sweden.”

The Beverages division is a part of the Gourmet & Specialties Products business of Barry Callebaut. Headquartered in Sweden, it is a leading player inEuropein the area of cocoa based powder solutions used in chocolate, cocoa and cappuccino beverages. Through its Beverages division, Barry Callebaut serves the vending and office coffee industry as well as the HORECA (hotels, restaurants and caterers) business. At its site in Kagerod, Barry Callebaut operates an integrated, state-of-the art production site, where most of the beverages products are manufactured. They are mainly marketed inEurope, but are also delivered to customers all over the world.

The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners will invest $2 billion in India over the next five years, beginning in 2012, to further capture the opportunity in the country’s non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverage market. India is a strategic growth country for The Coca-Cola Company, ranking among its top 10 markets in volume globally and as the largest market in the Eurasia and Africa Group.

Ahmet Bozer, Coca-Cola’s president, Eurasia and Africa Group, comments: “India is one of our most important growth markets as we work toward our 2020 Vision of doubling system revenues and servings this decade. The opportunity in the packaged beverage segment is immense, and our efforts in India are focused on being the beverage of choice all day, every day. If we continue to do the right things each day and at all times, it would not surprise me if India becomes one of the top five markets for the company globally by the end of this decade.”

NARTD beverages have enormous growth potential in India. The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners have robust plans to capture this opportunity with investments in innovation, consumer marketing and brand building, expansion of distribution and cold drink equipment placement as well as further development of manufacturing capacity to meet growing consumer demand.

The Coca-Cola system has already invested over $2 billion in India since it re-entered the country in 1993, and currently it directly employs more than 25,000 people. The Coca-Cola Company has registered volume growth in India for the past 21 quarters, 15 of which have seen double-digit growth. Two of the company’s core sparkling brands - Thums Up and Sprite - are the country’s top selling soft drink brands. Trademark Coca-Cola is one of our fastest growing sparkling brands and Maaza is India’s largest selling juice drink.

Worldwide, The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners are investing nearly $30 billion over the next five years to support anticipated growth across its system. These investments range from new manufacturing facilities to new distribution systems to new marketing investments in emerging economies. The Coca-Cola system currently employs more than 700,000 people worldwide, making it one of the world’s top five private employers.

Nestle is continuing to drive its growth in Europe with a €10 million (more than SFr12 million) investment to produce different varieties of chocolate in Spain. The company has installed a new production line for moulding chocolates at its factory in La Penilla de Cayon in the north of the country. It is one of eight major investments Nestle has made in its manufacturing operations in Europe this year, including SFr45 million to extend a factory in Hungaryand SFr38 million to double pet food production in Russia.

The investment in La Penilla is the second Nestle has made in Spain this year, reflecting the company’s continued confidence in the Spanish market. In March, Nestle invested SFr64 million to boost production at its Nescafe Dolce Gusto factory in Girona.

Thanks to sales of Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Nestle Spain increased its exports by more than 40% in the first six months of 2011, despite the country’s tough economic conditions.

The new production line at Nestle’s La Penilla factory is equipped with technology for making new types of chocolate with different shapes and textures. “This investment reflects the importance Nestle places on continuous innovation,” says Bernard Meunier, vice president and chief executive of Nestle Spain.

The investment in the new production line will expand the factory’s annual production of chocolate to 7,000 tonnes. It confirms Nestle’s commitment to accelerating confectionery development, following the company’s expansion of its Product Technology Centre for confectionery in the city of York in the United Kingdom in September.

Nestle’s factory in La Penilla de Cayon produces chocolates and confectionery, cocoa powder, and infant formula. Around 40% of the factory’s annual production is exported to 45 countries worldwide. The new production line takes Nestle’s total investment in the factory to Eur75 million (more than SFr90 million) over the last five years.

Nestle has completed a SFr240 million (Eur195 million) expansion of its soluble coffee factory in Timashevsk, Russia. Located in the Krasnodar region, the site is Nestle’s largest soluble coffee factory in Europe. It is also the company’s biggest investment project in Russia so far.

The factory uses advanced freeze-dry technology to make Nescafe coffee products for consumption in the Russian market and for export to other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Nescafe is the leading soluble coffee brand in Russia; the world’s biggest market for soluble coffee.

The expansion of the Timashevsk site, announced in 2008, has equipped the factory to produce Nescafe Gold freeze-dried coffee from raw material processing through to packing. It will also produce other soluble coffee products including Nescafe Gold Mild, Nescafe Gold Strong, and Nescafe Montego.

The factory, which employs 1,200 people, was alreadyRussia’s first “full-cycle” production site for soluble coffee. It has produced Nescafe Classic coffee ever since the first phase of its construction was completed in 2005.

“This factory is a perfect example of our long-term commitment to Russia and its consumers. It highlights our ongoing investment in the country,” says Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Nestle. “We have invested more than one billion US dollars (around SFr885 million) into manufacturing and distribution facilities in Russia over the past 15 years.”

Russia plays an important role in Nestle’s European operations, particularly in central and eastern Europe. The company’s brands in the country include Comilfo, Nescafe, Mega, Maggi, Perrier and Purina.

Currently, Nestle Russia employs more than 10,000 people and operates 12 production sites, ten sales offices and ten distribution centres. In August this year, the company announced it will invest more than SFr38 million to double pet food production at its Purina PetCare factory in Russia’s Kaluga region. This followed an investment of SFr60 million in 2010 in a new factory for Maggi products in the Vladimir region. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.

British yoghurt produced NOM UK plans to invest up to £110 million over the coming years to expand its production plant inShropshire, with the creation of 350 jobs. Based at Telford, the dairy only commenced production in December 2008 following investment of £60 million. The new investment will double the size of the dairy, which currently employs 160 people.

The planned expansion will be in two stages. The first phase will entail investment of £65 million and create up to 200 jobs. The second phase will add a further 150 jobs, extend output from the present level of 350 million pots a year to around one billion pots, and take investment to between £100 million and £110 million. NOM UK produces branded and own label yoghurt for the major British and Irish multiple retailers.

“NOM UK is uniquely placed to build its market share substantially through the opportunities presented by developing our UK manufacturing centre which uses British milk and local labour as well as sustainable production methods and offers significant carbon footprint reduction,” says Christoph Wenisch, chief executive of NOM International, who is taking over responsibility for the UK business following the decision by current chief executive David Potts to leave at the end of the year.

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Christoph Wenisch adds: “There is extensive land on our 24-acre site available for the expansion and most of the base infrastructure is already in place to process the large additional volumes of British milk that will be required.”

Pobeda, the leading manufacturer of biscuits and mini cakes in Bulgaria, is to expand output by a third following investment of lev 10 million (Eur5 million) in two new production lines. About 46% of the investment was provided by the European Regional Development Fund. Based at Bourgas, Pobeda had flat sales in 2010 of lev 26.2 million, with about 95% generated in the domestic market.

Milk Link, the UK’s largest cheese maker owned by over 1,600 dairy farmers, is to invest £20 million to transform its Lockerbie Creamery in Scotland, enhancing both its capacity and capabilities and making it one of the UK’s leading Cheddar production facilities. The investment will make Lockerbie the biggest dairy processing facility in Scotland and one of the largest and most advanced creameries in the UK. The site will benefit from a major redevelopment with the installation of the latest processing technology increasing annualised production by 12,000 tonnes to over 37,000 tonnes of cheese per annum.

The major investment being made at Lockerbie will not only secure the long term future of the creamery but also help to provide a strong platform for the expansion of dairying in South West Scotland and the North of England. In line with the new creamery’s increased processing capacity, Milk Link will now be actively recruiting additional Members in Scotland and the North of England to supply Lockerbie.

The investment will enhance Lockerbie’s product consistency and productivity. It will complement Milk Link’s other major Cheddar creameries – Taw Valley in Devon and Llandyrnog in North Wales – and enable the business to meet the growing demand from leading retailers, food service businesses, food processors and export customers for its high quality range of customer label and branded cheeses, butters and dairy ingredients.

“Our investment at Lockerbie will transform the creamery and reinforce Milk Link’s leadership position in the production of high quality British cheeses,” says Neil Kennedy (pictured), chief executive of Milk Link. “At the same time, we believe it provides a timely boost to the dairying sector in South West Scotland and the North of England as we increase the volume of milk from the region going into value added dairy processing.”

He continues: “The capital investment programme will be the largest undertaken to date by Milk Link and indeed is one of the largest investment projects in cheese manufacturing seen over the last 20 years in the UK.”

It follows on from Milk Link’s major investments at TawValley in relation to a next generation whey processing plant and the building of a new soft cheese creamery at Cornish Country Larder’s Trevarrian site, both of which will be fully operational this Autumn. Work at Lockerbie will start later this year and will be completed by Autumn 2012.

Nestle will invest more than SFr98 million (Eur83 million) in Thailand to increase manufacturing of its products including coffee and ice cream. The two year investment will support the expansion of the company’s existing factories in Thailand, as well as the construction of a new Nestle Quality Assurance Centre.

The plans aim to meet the growing demand for Nestle products in the country and the surrounding region.

Paul Bulcke (pictured), chief executive of Nestle, comments: “The sophistication of  Thai consumers, and their increasing focus on higher quality products with greater health and nutritional benefits, is giving Nestle an increasing competitive advantage in Thailand. Thailand has a very important role to play in both our Asian and our global strategy, as the country also looks after Nestle’s business in the region.”

In 2010, Nestle’s business in Thailand grew by more than 10% through a combination of domestic sales and the export of Thai-produced products to more than 44 countries around the world.

In 2009, Nestle announced major investments in two significant manufacturing projects in Thailand, taking its overall capital investment in the country at that time to SFr56 million. The investments supported the construction of a new Nestle Purina pet food factory and the expansion of the company’s existing factory in Navanakorn, which produces milk and coffee products.

Dr Oetker is to construct its first frozen pizza factory in North America. The German-based frozen foods group plans to build the factory in Ontario, Canada, at a cost of $50m – its largest investment outside Europe.

When completed, the new factory will produce 50m frozen pizzas a year for both the Canadian and US markets.

Nestle has opened a new pet food factory extension in Hungary producing Purina brands such as Felix, Friskies and Gourmet. With an investment of over SFr45m (Eur38m), the 10,000 sq m factory extension – equipped with four new production lines and new pouch-packaging technology – now forms part of the manufacturing factory site in the Hungarian town of Buk.

The company’s investment has reaffirmed its presence in Europe and looks set to enhance its drive to meet the growing demand for Purina PetCare brands in Central and Eastern Europe. The investment has also created more than 200 additional jobs, boosting the number of employees to 600 people.

“We have been operating in Hungary for more than 20 years. The Central and Eastern Europe region is a very important part of our business and this investment demonstrates our long-term commitment to business sustainability and economic development in this region,” comments Laurent Freixe, Nestle executive vice president and zone director for Europe.

In Europe, Nestle Purina PetCare is present in 35 countries, operates 14 factories and employs around 5,300 people.

Nestle began manufacturing products in Hungary in 1974, where it now operates four factories and employs around 1,650 people. In addition to producing pet food in Buk, a factory in Diosgyor manufactures chocolate brands including After Eight and Kit Kat. The Company also produces powdered beverages including Nescafe and Nesquik for European markets in the Hungarian town of Szerencs. Furthermore, its bottled mineral and spring water brands Nestle Aquarel and Theodora are manufactured in the village of Kekkut.

The Brecks Company, a cereals and meet-free foods business, is to invest £3m at its factory in North Yorkshire, England, in next generation production technology, which will also lead to a doubling of staff numbers. Work starts this summer on building two new 30,000 sq ft manufacturing facilities to enhance production at Selby-based Brecks, after gaining backing from Yorkshire Bank’s Leeds Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) through its Investing for Growth initiative.

Founded in 1992, Brecks employs 60 people and has a turnover of £10m. The company’s cereal products include snack bars and breakfast cereals and its meat-free products include sausages and burgers. The business has also developed a unique wood smoking process which enables it to target products specially made for the German, Swiss and Dutch markets where they are popular.

The £3m investment in the two new facilities, which are due to become operational in 2012, is expected to create 60 new jobs at Brecks, which supplies its cereal products to blue-chip global confectionery businesses and its meat-free products to household name retailers through the UK, Europe and US.

“We are one of the biggest, most productive operators in our two target sectors globally and, in terms of meat-free products, also supply the ‘meat’ or textured materials, we manufacture to other food companies,” points out James Hirst, founder and managing director of Brecks. “The investment in new facilities and technology will enable us to stay at the forefront of the industry. On the cereals side we will be developing cluster technology and, for meat-free, we will be expanding our product range and increasing capacity so as to maintain and grow our customer base.”

He continues: “People’s quest for a healthier lifestyle is driving our growth as they eat cereal bars rather than less healthy alternatives and meat-free products, where we manufacture all the ingredients, also offers medium to long-term environmental sustainability.”

Yorkshire Bank Leeds FSC Business partner, Michael Tew, who arranged the funding, says: “The Brecks Company is a huge Yorkshire success story, a business at the global forefront of its sector. We are pleased to be supporting them through our Investing for Growth initiative and creating more badly-needed jobs in the private sector.”

Yorkshire Bank’s Investing for Growth initiative enables businesses to take loan repayment holidays, interest-only repayments and extended loan and credit terms to take advantage of quality growth opportunities. Businesses signing up to the package can re-invest the cash into their operation for expansion, new staff, equipment, machinery and commercial development.

Driven by a strong performance from its managed pubs and hotels business, London-based regional brewer and pub operator Fuller, Smith & Turner increased profit before tax by 16% to £31.0m and revenue by 6% to £241.9m for the 53 weeks ended April 2nd 2011. Revenues across the group’s managed pubs and hotels business increased by 7% to £147.2m and like for like sales grew by 3.9%. Operating profit before exceptional items grew by 15% to £18.1m driven almost equally by sales growth and margin expansion.

The Fuller’s Beer Company put in a robust performance in what remains a difficult marketplace. For the 53 week period total beer volumes increased by 2%, which combined with higher duty rates led to a 6% increase in revenue to £104.1m. However, operating profit fell by 1% to £8.8m as a result of higher costs due to an increased proportion of packaged beer going to the export and off trade markets and a £0.3m increase in marketing costs.

The company again grew its share of the UK ale market despite volumes of own beer sold in the UK declining 4% as a consequence of the continued challenging climate in the free on trade market. Volumes in the off trade continued to grow ahead of the market with a 6% increase, whilst a thirst for Fuller’s beer abroad drove export volumes up 16%. Indeed, one in seven barrels of beer that Fuller’s produces is exported to one of 62 countries around the world.

In order to support growth in the off trade and export channels Fuller’s is investing more than £4.5m in new conditioning tanks at the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick. This will enable it to continue to meet the growing demand for bottled beers both at home and abroad. The tanks will be commissioned in October 2011. The company’s London Pride brand remains the UK’s leading premium ale and this year became the number one free trade cask ale by value in the UK.

The Irish Government has allocated grant aid of Eur1.7m for 18 companies towards a total investment package of Eur7.4m to enhance efficiency within the Irish seafood processing industry. The initiative is expected to create 158 new jobs in the sector over a three years period.

Amongst the companies approved for Government support is Cork-based Fastnet Mussels which will be investing in new capital equipment in order to produce value added cooked mussel products. Atlan Fish in Donegal is developing a value added processing area in order to increase production and broaden its product range, while Rockabill Shellfish in Dublin plans to increase production of value added prawn products and improve efficiencies through the installation of energy efficient equipment.

The aims of the Irish Government’s Processing Scheme are to add value to Irish seafood products, improve efficiency, promote consolidation and create additional income and employment within the sector.

The Government has also launched new pilot jobs initiative for the fishing port of Killybegs aimed at creating an additional 250 jobs in the area by 2014. The jobs initiative is a result of an economic study carried out for the EU Commission which assessed the status, development and potential diversification of Killybegs as a fisheries dependent community.