Premier Foods is investing £36m ($47.3m) in a UK factory to accommodate production of the Loyd Grossman brand of cooking sauces.
The London-listed UK food major, which also owns The Spice Tailor and Mr Kipling product lines, said manufacturing of Loyd Grossman sauces had previously been conducted by a third party.
It is now bringing production in-house at the company's facility in Worksop in the county of Nottinghamshire, a plan that will kick-off "early" in 2028.
The investment at Worksop will be deployed in a phased manner through 2029, Premier Foods said in a statement today (18 November).
"This will secure the long-term supply of the brand and is in line with a key pillar of Premier Foods’ growth strategy to invest in supply chain capability to increase efficiency and productivity," the company added.
Premier Foods also announced that it is extending its brand licensing agreement with the TV celebrity Sir Loyd Grossman. The agreement, which started in 1995, will be extended until 2034 with the option to add on another five years.
According to the company’s statement, the cooking sauce brand has shown an average annual growth rate of 4.7% over the last five years.
CEO Alex Whitehouse said the investment is the largest deployed by Premier Foods in 15 years. The Worksop plant, which currently employs around 500 staff, also manufactures the Sharwood’s and Homepride cooking sauces, as well as Batchelors, Bisto, Saxa and Oxo.
"It will enable us to more than double our annual cooking sauces production capacity, supporting growth opportunities and providing enhanced capabilities for innovation across our cooking sauces’ brands, while improving the site for our colleagues,” Whitehouse said.
In September, Premier Foods also announced a £19m investment at its Lifton site in Devon to boost Ambrosia dessert production.
Premier Foods said the investment came in “response to growth in consumer demand” and would aim to “improve efficiency”.
The company also added to recent acquisitions in August with the purchase of Merchant Gourmet, the UK-based manufacturer of ready-to-eat products. It said it was paying £48m for the business.
Meanwhile, Premier Foods reported its first-half results last week.
Group revenue rose 0.7% to £502.5m for the period to 27 September. Branded revenue was £453m, a 1.9% increase from the previous six-months.
Trading profit edged up 0.4% to £70.5m.
Statutory profit after tax rose 18.5% to £46.8m, while basic earnings per share increased 17.4% to 5.4 pence.
Premier Foods said the Worksop investment involves the installation of a "high-speed" manufacturing line, along with an upgrade to storage facilities and the addition of new link road to the plant.
