Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips Philips said: “If market conditions continue, we will become the UK’s largest manufacturer of fresh food by 2015. This investment sets us apart from other retailers and means that we will be the biggest customer for UK farms.
Minimal waste
“This will continue to build on our record of serving the freshest and best food that our farmers have to offer with minimal waste in the supply chain.”
The retailer plans to invest £21M to boost capacity at its abattoir in Colne, Lancashire.
It also plans investments in fruit, vegetables and salad packing to add to recent spending plans covering seafood and meat processing.
Earlier this month, Morrisons said its new seafood processing business in Grimsby will create 200 jobs and make the firm the only major food retailer to source fish from the quayside and process it for sale across the UK, it claims.
A spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We expect the site in Grimsby to be fully operational by the end of this year – at which point it will be producing about 200t of seafood a week. That is around 10,000t a year.”