Tiptree jam maker Wilkin & Sons plans expansion
The Tiptree-based company opened a 465m2 distribution facility in near Earls Colne, Essex last month, farm director Chris Newenham told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
The facility employs 12 people, all of whom have relocated from the existing base.
The move comes as the company advances towards getting planning permission for a new £15M factory, based to the south of its current site in the village of Tiptree.
It wants the Colchester Council to rezone land immediately adjacent to the current premises to build the new factory, said Newenham.
The proposals have been sent to the planning inspector by Colchester Council, and are set to be examined in public hearings later this year.
New jam factory
The process will decide whether local and council support for the new jam factory proposals are sufficiently compelling.
Wilkin & Sons told FoodManufacture last year that it had outgrown its existing base in Factory Hill in the village of Tiptree, Essex, parts of which are more than a century old. The factory is currently working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep up with demand, with sales up a reported 19% year-on-year.
Wilkin & Sons looked at options including a move from its iconic base of Tiptree, as well as the rezoning plan.
Tiptree
Newenham said: “No plans have been submitted yet. We are in a process with the council of looking at getting the land rezoned. The business continues to grow as a whole.”
The family-firm hoped to part-fund the development by winning permission to build up to 250 homes on the existing factory site and on fields opposite.
If the plans are approved Wilkin & Sons hopes to start building the factory in 2014.
The first Tiptree conserves were made in 1885 and the firm still grows fruit on the Tiptree estates.
Meanwhile, leading the race to buy Premier Foods’ Hartley’s jams and spreads business is US natural and organic food group Hain Celestial, according to a report in The Financial Times today (June 22).
