Kettle Foods invests £2.7m to upgrade its Norwich factory

Kettle Foods, the manufacturer of Kettle Chips snacks, has invested £2.7 million to upgrade the manufacturing capabilities of its Norwich factory.

A new potato intake building will be built as a result of the investment, which will be built on spare land adjacent to the factory and will have room for eight articulated lorries, increasing potato intake capacity by a third.

Kettle Foods will provide £1.7 million to fund the project, and the remaining £1 million will be supplied by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development as a grant.

New potato grading machinery which will remove soil, stones and small or damaged potatoes will be installed as part of the new development, and a new water flume system will transport the checked potatoes to the main factory.

Construction of the new building will start this summer, and the company estimates that the construction will be completed within 12 months.

Ashley Hicks, Kettle Foods managing director said: “It is a big commitment to Kettle staying in Norfolk and secures the future of the site for as far ahead as we can see.

“Potato intake is one of the bottle-necks in the site for us. Getting potatoes in from growers was difficult. We have an intake curfew of 7pm which is putting pressure on us so this will allow us to take more in and maintain that curfew.”