Uniq opens £4M dessert factory extension

Riviera Desserts, Uniq Prepared Foods' recently renamed desserts business in Paignton, has opened a £4M extension to its high care production facilities.

The 12-month project transformed a redundant 674m2 cold store into a modern, flexible production facility, creating 50 new engineering and manufacturing jobs, taking the workforce to over 400. The new area houses two production lines that will significantly increase capacity at the site, which currently produces over 28,000t of product per year for its retail customers.

In a joint venture with Müller Dairies UK, the first line, supplied by Integral Packaging Solutions, will provide extra capacity of 54M pots per year on the Cadbury chilled desserts twin pot range, produced at Paignton under a co-pack agreement with Müller.

The second line is a six lane pot filler from Regal Packaging, capable of producing 41M pots per year of single eat cheesecakes and traditional trifles. The line will allow greater flexibility during an £8M factory improvement plan due to take place over the next year.

Riviera Desserts md Hamish Renton said the extra capacity was “absolutely critical” as the company looked to expand its operation, while the investment would enable it to grow its product portfolio.

He added: “We are getting into a really good place as a business - great products, great people and now a great factory.”