Following an intense eight-month project, the DB Foods headquarters at Fulcrum Business Park in Poole, Dorset has been expanded with a new factory.
The addition is result of increasing retail partnerships for the meat distributor and sees the organisation’s estate now stretching across 25,000 sq. ft.
Initial designs for the new factory were presented in March 2024, with installation of the new facility beginning in July and completed by October – in time for its first contract of Halloween products for Aldi.
The site, which includes bespoke machinery from local provider Sealpac, currently houses a team of 90 people – a number that is set to rise to 130 by the end of January 2025, with the potential to reach 150 over the course of next year.
“The new refrigeration technology blew my mind,” commented Dr Margaret Boanas, chairman of The International Meat Trade Association, who officially opened the new facility. “Using glycol rather than gas to reduce CO2 emissions is an incredible innovation to address the environmental concerns often levelled at the meat industry.”
“At the heart of the new factory is the concept of an activity flow that increases efficiency and capacity,” explained Graeme Clapp, the commercial director at DB Foods. “We can handle product preparation for all types of recipe requirements, from the straight-forward to the highly complex.”
“We knew we complied with retail standards, but wanted to raise our game by meeting the demands of specific retailers (for example, replacing our loading bays in compliance with Tesco Assured) and environmental standards, both now and in the future.”
The space, which is a result of a £3 million investment, has a projected forecast of a £30m turnover by 2027.
This expansion follows the disposal by DB Foods Group of the loss-making Muscle Foods business in March 2022 and a strategic review which identified a number of potential growth areas for DB Foods Limited.
According to the latest report on Company’s House, the business has increased its turnover by £11m (12%) between 2 July 2022 and 30 June 2023.
