First bottling line for Universal Beverages
The first bottling line at a brand new contract manufacturing facility run by Universal Beverages will become operational at the end of this month.
A new joint venture between Scottish & Newcastle and Q Group, Universal was set up to produce cider for S&N subsidiary Bulmer’s under a 15-year contract and a broad range of other products for the wider drinks industry.
The firm has just opened a 400,000 hectolitre bulk cider facility at Orchard Park, Ledbury, and is now developing a multi-million-pound fruit milling facility at the former Robertson’s preserves factory at Little Marcle Road, also in Ledbury.
The fruit mill, which will open in September, will be able to handle a wide range of fruit and vegetables and has 15,000t of storage capacity for juices and concentrates, while its fermentation tank farm will be capable of producing 5.5M hectolitres of fermented products a year, said operations director Chris Newall. There will also be more than 10,000 square metres of ambient, chilled and frozen storage facilities.
The recent arrival of the first fruit presses at the site prior to this season’s apple harvest was a key milestone for the business, said Newall. The new mill will supply Orchard Park with fruit concentrates for fermentation, while products made in bulk at the Orchard Park facility will be sent to the new fruit mill by tanker for packaging into bottles and cans.
“We’re in advanced negotiations with a series of large and small drinks companies to produce a range of products from soft drinks to beer. In the current economic climate, we actually present an attractive proposition for companies looking to outsource some production and focus on sales and marketing. We can also work with them on a range of options. Say, for example, they have a packaging line that’s only half utilised. We could buy it off them, run their packing for them under contract and pack other people’s products as well to increase its efficiencies. Everyone’s a winner.”
The first bottling line would open in three weeks’ time, a second would open in September and a third in March 2009, said Newall. “This will be followed by canning lines in April 2009 and an aseptic PET line.”
He added: “Both plants are capable of producing and packaging ciders, wines, made-wines or ready to drink alcoholic beverages and soft drinks. Robertsons Park only is capable of milling fruit and vegetables and producing and packaging fruit juices, purees and smoothies.”
Up to 150 staff would be required to work on the S&N contract, while up to 400 could ultimately work there following the successful negotiation of contracts for other customers, said Newall. “We are talking to a number of drinks producers across the UK in relation to contract milling, fermentation and packaging.”
The aim is to make the site as environmentally friendly as possible, by recycling water and building an anaerobic digestion site to produce biogas to power the boilers, said Newall.
