Danish Crown to invest over £100m and create 300 jobs in new UK bacon factory

22-Nov-2022 - Last updated on 22-Nov-2022 at 12:24 GMT

Danish Crown is to invest into the Rochdale factory

Danish Crown, the pork processor, is to invest more than £100m in a new 30,500 sq.m sustainable processing facility in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

The facility is due to begin production in the second half of 2023 and will create around 300 specialised jobs once it is fully operational, producing more than 900 tonnes of bacon and gammon a week.

The processing facility will use highly automated production equipment and the latest processing technology to slice and pack bacon and gammon produced to UK welfare and food safety standards

Climate Neutral

It will be 100% powered by renewable energy and built to market-leading environmental standards, supporting Danish Crown’s wider ambition to deliver climate neutral meat production by 2050.

Heat recovery from the plant’s utility systems will supplement conventional heating sources to heat the office space and provide hot water, whilst ammonia will be used as a refrigerant to minimise environmental impact. Food waste will be reduced through the use of bacon offcuts in other products such as sausages, whilst a circular packaging system for deliveries of pork to the site will minimise packaging waste.

Danish Crown said that to support sustainability and transparency it will be able to provide customers with the carbon footprint of their products from farm to fork. From today, the company said it has begun disclosing its emissions footprint across its full supply chain in its Sustainability Report.

Long heritage

“Danish Crown has a long heritage in the UK, bringing British consumers high quality bacon and pork products for over 135 years. This investment forms the next step in our commitment to the UK market, bringing our customers a reliable, transparent supply of high-quality bacon to help meet demand, produced to high sustainability and welfare standards,” said Jais Valeur, ceo, Danish Crown.

“The future of meat will be based on high quality products that are as sustainable as possible. We know this is an ambition shared by many of our customers in the UK and with this new factory, we look forward to working more closely with them towards a more sustainable future for food production.”

The new investment will create Danish Crown’s first production facility in the UK in three years, following the sale of its Tulip subsidiary to Pilgrim's in 2019.