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Vickers Oils to open purpose-built facility for food grade lubes and greases
The privately-run family business, established in the UK in 1828, has described the facility as ‘something between’ a food manufacturing site and a lubricants manufacturing site, which it also believes is a UK one-of-a-kind.
The new facility will open formally on 23 February and will be self-contained, with all raw materials and finished products on site strictly food grade.
Whilst some food grade lubricants intentionally come into contact with food during manufacturing, the majority are formulated for incidental contact that can occur while they perform their primary purpose of protecting manufacturing equipment. Vickers Oils says the ‘self-containment design’ will significantly reduce the risk of any cross-contamination with the type of non-food grade chemicals that would typically be present in abundance were the site multi-purpose. Moreover, while personnel will move between the two sites in Leeds, the manufacturing team will have dedicated clothing for the new site to further reduce contamination.
Beyond the manufacturing equipment and infrastructure, the development also includes a quality control laboratory and training suite. With a modular design to easily enable increased scale with business growth, the mains electricity supply from renewable resources will be complemented by a full array of roof-mounted solar panels.
Vickers Oils’ managing director, Paul Vann, said increasing awareness over provenance, quality and safety from consumers has been “the primary reason for building a dedicated manufacturing site”.
The company has also said this significant investment is a ‘clear statement of intent’ for current and future customers, demonstrating its commitment to continuous improvement in delivering solutions that allow for better quality services and products, and, of course, increased industry compliance.
Vickers Food Grade products are manufactured according to ISO 9001;2015 and ISO 21469 standards, are Halal and Kosher certified, and NSF H1 & 3H registered.
In other news, Kraft Heinz has partnered with Carlton Power to kit one of its sites in Wigan out with renewable green hydrogen technology. Find out more here.
