Nestlé at it again – invests $178.5 million in UK coffee factory
By Canadian Packaging Staff
General coffee investment NestleInvestment to create 300 jobs and triple coffee capsule production.
Nestlé, a global leader in nutrition, health and wellness products, just can’t stop investing its money!
The company is now investing Cdn/US $178.5-million (£110-million) in its Nescafé Dolce Gusto factory in the United Kingdom, creating 300 new jobs and tripling coffee capsule production.
According to Nestlé, the investment will expand the factory, located in Tutbury in Derbyshire, and its workforce at a time when UK unemployment is at a 17-year high.
It is the latest in a series of multi-million dollar investments Nestlé has made in the UK—and the world—over the past five years.
In the UK alone, these include: $342.6-million (£200-million) to transform its confectionery factory in York, $64.9-million (£40-million) to create a European center of excellence for Nescafé Cappuccino in Cumbria, and most recently, a $56.8-million (£35-million) investment to build a new water bottling and warehouse facility in Buxton.
World class manufacturing
British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the news.
“This new investment by Nestlé and the jobs it will create is brilliant news for UK manufacturing and for the local community,” says Cameron. “This demonstrates what can be achieved by investing in capacity and people as Nestlé has done consistently over recent years.
“The jobs created by this new investment will benefit both skilled workers and those leaving school who will be able to train in the workplace to become the skilled workers of the future,” he continues.
Paul Grimwood, chairman and chief executive officer of Nestlé UK and Ireland, attended an event in Tutbury to announce the factory expansion.
“We are creating our next generation of world class competitive manufacturing facilities,” states Grimwood. “We need to continue to innovate to remain ahead of the market and are committed to the ongoing modernization of our UK manufacturing capabilities.”
Developing talent
Nestlé is a major employer in the UK, with about 7,000 staff across 19 sites.
The factory workforce at Tutbury has grown from 160 to 500 employees since 2006 and will increase to 800 by 2013, following the expansion of the site.
Some of the 300 new employees at Tutbury will form part of the first intake of the ‘Nestlé Academy’, a new initiative that will offer young people apprenticeships, graduate programmes and on-the-job training to help them build a lasting career with Nestlé.
High speed production
The factory in Tutbury is one of only two production sites for Nescafé Dolce Gusto coffee capsules in the world, with the other located in Girona, Spain.
The investment will equip the Tutbury factory with 12 new high-speed production lines to triple its output from about four million capsules a day up to 12 million.
More than 90 per cent of the capsules will be exported to over 38 countries worldwide, but will also be be sold in the UK.
Booming brand
The Nescafé Dolce Gusto ‘coffee shop at home’ system that can make a variety of a hot and cold drinks, including 16 different types of coffee, has quickly grown since its debut in 2006 with more than four billion coffee capsules sold worldwide.
This year alone, the company says Nescafé Dolce Gusto has been growing at a rate of 50 per cent.
First launched in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK, it is now sold in 41 countries. It had a turnover of $512.5-million (Swiss CHF 450-million) in 2010.
Nestlé in the United Kingdom
Nestlé’s factory in Tutbury was the company’s first manufacturing site in the UK when it opened in 1901.
Originally built to produce condensed milk, the factory was transformed in 1959 to begin manufacturing Nescafé soluble coffee.
Nestlé has invested more than $162.4-million (£100-million) in the factory over the past five years to strengthen its position as a leading Nescafé production site.
Nestlé manufactures a variety of iconic brands in the UK. These include: Kit Kat, the country’s number one selling nice light snack, Quality Street confectionery, Nescafé soluble coffee, and Shredded Wheat cereal.
The company had sales of $4.21-billion (Swiss CHF 3.7-billion) in the UK in 2010.
Nestlé is one of the UK’s major food exporters, selling products worth more than $422.3-million (£260-million) each year to 50 countries around the world.
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