New factory for It’s Nut Free

Nut-free snacks manufacturer It’s Nut Free will start production at a new purpose-built factory in the Thorp Arch trading estate in Wetherby, in early summer.

The move, from the company’s existing site in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, follows a cash boost of £250,000 from Tadcaster-based investment business, the Commer Group.

Founder and md Angela Russell said: “The business has changed a lot. It started about four years ago with me in my kitchen making products for my daughter Kirsty, who is allergic to nuts, soya and sesame. We then did some mail order. Then all of a sudden, we got a call from Asda, and things took off.

“Now, we supply Morrison and Waitrose, and have just struck a deal with a large health foods wholesaler. We’re talking to Tesco and Sainsbury and following up some export leads. We’ve also got a new md and finance director with the commercial skills to take things forward in a more professional capacity.”

The new plant will be a nut, soya, sesame, seeds and genetically modified organism-free zone, said Russell. “I’ve got all of these plans about moving into completely new areas from pub food to ready meals and frozen food, but we are a small company and we need to do things in stages and focus on the core products first.”

Given the cost and complexity of segregating parts of their facilities to exclude nuts, very few larger manufacturers had entered the nut-free market, she said. “There is very little competition. The bulk of the free-from market is wheat-free and dairy-free.”

The company, which also plans to set up a new online shopping facility from its website, said supermarkets typically wanted six months of shelf-life. “Some of our products only have a week’s shelf-life,” she said. “This means they tend to be interested in a far more limited range of products, like flapjacks, even though we make a whole range of chocolates, cakes, biscuits, flapjacks, slices and other products.”