Demand for sausages prompts £3M investment

Huddersfield-based Newsholme Food Group has pumped £3M into a factory extension to meet growing demand for its sausages and cooked meat products.The...

Huddersfield-based Newsholme Food Group has pumped £3M into a factory extension to meet growing demand for its sausages and cooked meat products.

The family-owned business, which is almost 60 years old and employs more than 200 staff, supplies meat-based products for UK and Continental European customers in the wholesale, catering and retail sectors.

The extension houses the cooked meat division and is also home to a new Weber slicing machine, giving the firm enhanced capability within the foodservice industry, said project manager David Newsholme. “We have also spent a further £500,000 on renovating the existing factory. It’s been a tough 18 months with rising labour, energy and raw materials costs, and there has also been a lot of consolidation in the market, but our new production manager has helped us increase our efficiency and explore new market opportunities and we are growing steadily. There is business out there if you just go for it.”

Newsholme supplies more than 250 stock-keeping-units under a range of brands including Country Park Foods (cooked meats, fresh and frozen sausages), T.E. Newsholme (cooked meats and sausages), CPS Foods (value frozen ready meals) and Oakes Fine Foods (luxury frozen ready meals).

Turnover in the year to March 31 was £20M and should top £25M next year - a 25% increase - said Newsholme.