Popcorn production starts at UFP's Lewisher Road factory

Production of popcorn has started at the new Universal Flexible Packaging (UFP) factory at the Lewisher Road, Leicester. The news follows the announcement of its £11M expansion plans in September 2014 and further investment of £2.3M in its existing Lunsford Road plant in January this year.

Four popcorn lines have now been commissioned at Lewisher Road site and UFP is on schedule to produce 45M bags of popcorn this year from its dedicated space there.

One hundred staff will be working out of the new factory by mid-March and in excess of 1Mkg of raw corn and 0.25Mkg of sugar will be processed in 2015.

Specialises

UFP specialises in flexible film and contract packaging for the food industry. It boasts several retail brands and multi-national companies among its customers. It also specialises in the production of popcorn and snack foods for several major groups.

“Getting the popcorn and bagging plant up and running at Lewisher Road in such a short time is testament to the hard work of our staff, our building contractors and machinery suppliers,” said commercial director John Harrison. “Product produced here is already on the shelves in major supermarkets throughout the UK.”

Plant  

It is anticipated that the final conversion of the Lewisher Road plant to UFP’s requirements will be complete by the summer and work has now begun on the office accommodation.

The Lunsford Road factory is now focusing on packaging of dry goods such as nuts and confectionery products, which it carries out for many well-known brands.