In this exclusive interview, Mark Bagwell – operations director at parent company Wessanen UK – said the new factory would make the business more efficient while providing the capacity to fulfil estimated demand for a decade.
The new development will put all of Clipper’s operations in Beaminster under the same roof, Bagwell explained.
“Now, we have a very inefficient process, where we have to transport product from one end of the site to the other, and then sometimes back again,” he said.
‘Handled 32 times’
“We did a quick, lean exercise to understand what that meant to us, and we realised that each of our products was actually handled 32 times as a minimum, and travelled about 1km – just across this very small site alone.”
Bagwell also believed the new facility would be important for staff.
“The team here are really committed, and we need them to have a world-class, best-in-class facility.”
Find out more about how the organic and Fairtrade specialist makes its tea in this exclusive photogallery of images taken from Food Manufacture’s tour of the existing operation.
And to read more about how Bagwell plans to make Clipper a global brand – part of our ‘Me and My Factory’ series of profiles – order your copy of the June issue of Food Manufacture magazine .
Nim’s Fruit Crisps
Meanwhile, the founder of a fast-growing innovative crisp firm has claimed the strong reputation of UK produce will put the country in good stead when it leaves the EU.
In this exclusive video, Nim’s Fruit Crisps boss Nimisha Raja explained that there would always be customers wanting a British product.
You can view how Raja produces her novel range of air-dried fruit and vegetable crisps in this exclusive tour of the company’s new 929m2 factory in Kent.
Do you and your factory have a story to tell? If you think you would make a suitable Me and My Factory candidate, Food Manufacture’s associate editor Noli Dinkovski would love to hear from you.