The directors of Berrington Pure Spring Water, Henry Tomlin, Ben Rendell and Rhodri Lewis, are delighted to announce the ex-Nestlé bottling plant at Fillongley, is officially now trading as Fillongley Spring Water.
In 2001, Nestlé/Powwow designed and built a new bottling plant in Fillongley, Warwickshire. Costing over £6m, it was designed to be the largest, most efficient, purpose built facility in the UK.
Between 2003 and 2008, Nestlé invested heavily in the site, bringing it up to meet rigorous hygiene and quality standards. In conjunction with Zenith International, a new borehole was sunk on site to improve the quality of the water to meet Nestlé spring water specifications, at a cost of £1m. The laboratory on site was UKAS accredited and was the only lab in the industry with ISO 170002 standards.
The 1,250 bottles per hour bottling line was installed by Italian manufacturers R Bardi in 2001 and is still the fastest bottling plant in the UK for 19 litre bottles.
The company has employed ex-Nestlé staff ensuring continued high quality operations at the site. Until the business went into administration, the plant regularly produced almost three million 19 litre bottles of water per annum. The plant has now been fully re-commissioned and contracted sales are already approaching two million bottles per year.
Fillongley Spring Water director, Ben Rendell, said: “The purchase has not been without some extremely unforeseen circumstances and the support offered by Angel Springs along the way has been invaluable.
“Now that we are operational, it is nice to be able to offer the use of this very efficient centrally located facility to all bottle distributors throughout the UK, as previously only Powwow customers were permitted to enjoy the benefits that this site offers.”
In return for the their assistance, Angel Springs has accepted a shareholding in the business and are silent partners in the new company, Fillongley Joint Ventures.
On 1 September, Angel signed a water supply agreement with Fillongley Spring Water, which will now service their depots throughout the Midlands and the North.
John Dundon, managing director of Angel Springs, said: “We are delighted to be associated with the re-birth of this facility. The relaunch of this prestigious bottling facility demonstrates the continued strength of the bottled water market.”
Source: Berrington Spring Water
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