Hope for new soft drinks production facility

Soft drinks entrepreneur Andrew Cawthray is hoping to secure planning permission to build a soft drinks production facility at Leeming Bar, Yorkshire.

Cawthray, who founded Macaw Soft Drinks in the early 1990s before selling it to Cott Corporation for £76M in 2005, is reluctant to give details of what will be produced at the site until he gets the go-ahead.

However, his planning application explains: “The proposed facility will be used for the production of soft drinks from raw materials imported to the site and stored in external silos. The soft drinks will be bottled using bottles manufactured on site.”

Cawthray, who presented his case to Hambleton District Council’s development management committee on Thursday (January 8), proposes the construction of a bottling plant factory with associated storage space, offices and research and development facilities.

It adds: “The main building’s external footprints will be 10,422 square metres, with two internal upper floors of 392 square metres and internal mezzanine of 1,071 square metres.

Cawthray is hoping to get the green light by the end of the month.