ABP to invest £17m in Scottish site
The redevelopment, which was announced by Fergus Ewing, cabinet secretary for the rural economy and connectivity, includes an extension and upgrade of the facility’s chilled storage area, dry goods storage, maturation and meat production facilities and staff amenities.
When completed, the project, which was supported by the Scottish Government’s Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation grant scheme, is expected to create 80 new jobs. This announcement followed a £3m investment in cold storage and refrigeration facilities on the site over the past year.
Tom Kirwan, managing director of ABP’s UK division, said: “We look forward to beginning work and transforming Perth into one of the most modern facilities of its kind in the UK. The improvements will benefit everyone from our farmer suppliers through to our colleagues and the local economy.
80 additional jobs
“It will create 80 additional jobs on-site and provide significant employment during the construction phase.”
ABP acquired the Perth facility in 1997. It employs 280 staff and works with 1,600 farmers from across Scotland.
The meat firm recently announced that it has converted all of its UK beef and lamb processing sites to green energy.
The business added that the Perth site also played a key role in helping ABP achieve quadruple accreditation from the Carbon Trust in recognition of the progress it is making in reducing its environmental impact.
Doing More with Less
This achievement was driven by ABP Food Group’s ‘Doing More with Less’ sustainability strategy, which has a number of ambitious targets to be achieved by 2020 with a view to reducing the company’s environmental footprint.
As part of its commitments, ABP opened a £22m green energy plant in Buckinghamshire in October 2017. Created by ABP’s renewable division Olleco, the plant will convert more than 100,000t of waste into heat, power and bio-methane for export to the national grid.
The company won the award for Environmental Initiative of The Year at the 2017 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards. To register your interest for this year’s awards, which will open for entry shortly, contact Rebecca George at rebecca.george@wrbm.com.
