The ice cream supplier, has revealed it will be opening a new facility at ESR Europe’s Sheffield scheme as it looks to expand its product offerings.
The major investment and expansion will see the iconic Mr Whippy brand introduce doughnuts into its portfolio which has already diversified into cupcakes. It expects to produce more than 104 million of the doughnuts annually from 2026.
The new product will be made, and distributed, from a 23,355 sq ft unit at Woodhouse Link on Innovation Way in Sheffield after company director Michael Corrado Jackson agreed a new lease for the modern site located just off J31 of the M1.
The unit, currently being fitted out for specialist food production, will create more than 50 new jobs on the industrial estate in South East Sheffield, the company has revealed.
Michael Corrado Jackson, company director at Mr Whippy, said: “This major investment is a crucial next step for the brand and its product expansion, and this site perfectly fitted our needs both on location, and for operational purposes being a modern, detached unit. We will be able to satisfy the requirements for specialist food production, automation processes, and then easy distribution of the product.”
He added: “The unit will be the manufacturing hub for the doughnut production, which will be fully launched next year and available from retailers.”
Rebecca Schofield at Knight Frank, who handled the lease, said: “The modern unit leant itself to becoming a state of the art food production facility and the location for distribution of the product is unparalleled.”
This new factory comes as other food manufacturers have also released details of their investments.
Whitakers Chocolates, the North Yorkshire chocolatiers, recently launched its new Milk chocolate Brazil Nuts following the commission of a dedicated nut processing facility at its Snaygill site in Skipton.
Carlsberg Britvic also recently invested £20 million in a new soft drinks canning line.