Danone’s plant-based brand Alpro has unveiled its latest investment for its Kettering-based UK factory as part of a total £41m plan set to ramp up production capacity and enhance its sustainability credentials.
The latest investment comprises a new £17m, high-speed production facility along with a state-of-art trigeneration unit and water treatment plant that will reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions and water usage across the site.
The announcement follows years of strong growth for the plant-based and dairy-free sector, now worth £636m, of which Alpro accounts for £260m in value sales.
The new production facility is set to increase production capacity to 300 million litres of soya, oat, rice and coconut drinks a year (representing 300 million packs of Alpro 1L drinks). With further planned investment, that number is set to increase to up to 400 million litres as early as 2022.
Sue Garfitt, General Manager for Alpro, said: “As the plant-based category leader, we’ve been blazing a trail in sustainable production for more than 40 years, and there’s no question that this significant investment in our UK site is the latest example of that.
“The changes we are installing will not only accelerate the volume of products we are producing in the UK, for UK shoppers – but will also allow us to keep ahead of the curve and continue being the brand to fuel the category growth and whet the nation’s appetite for delicious and healthy plant-based products, and of course, doing this whilst operating in a planet-friendly way.”
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