New vegetable processing site sets target of £20M turnover

Vegetable processor Branston aims to achieve a turnover of £20M within five years at its newly opened £3.5M prepared vegetable product facility.

The 2,500m2 factory was officially opened on July 21, but production began in May. It has created 30 jobs and can produce more than 300,000 packs per week from four lines, with capacity for double that.

"We decided to take the plunge and build on the facility adjacent to our existing potato packing facility south of Lincoln," said Branston development director Mark Wilcox. "It makes 20 SKUs [stock keeping units] with a turnover of £6M, but we're looking to increase this substantially by something like 40% in the next year. We're well on the way to achieving that and would like to replicate that growth over the next five years to get to £20M."

The firm estimates the UK prepared vegetable market to be worth £720M. Turnover for Branston's fresh potato business was £100M, said Wilcox.

Branston chairman Chris Howard said: "This is the next stage in our development. Branston Prepared and this new factory will allow us to develop further in a growing market, that of high-quality, delicious, convenient prepared potato and vegetable products."

The Lincoln prepared facility sources water from its own bore hole and heats itself by burning the 20t of waste potato boxes and pallets that Branston scraps annually. The firm hopes the facility will be independent of external utilities within a year.

Branston is the category leader for Tesco prepared potato products. The firm also operates factories in Ilminster, Somerset, and Abernethy, Scotland.