Branston opens £5m cold store

A £5 million investment programme by potato supplier Branston Ltd has been completed this month and the company now boasts one of the industry’s most revolutionary cold stores.

At an impressive 5,000 square metres and a cost of £2.1m, Branston’s new cold store sets new milestones in efficiencies and emissions.

Capable of storing 9,000 tonnes of potatoes at a controlled temperature of 2.5^oC, the building features an integrated cooling system, which uses glycol refrigeration technology, to provide the perfect conditions for potato storage at vastly reduced operating costs compared to older cold stores.

Work began in the Spring of this year and contractors Trent Valley Construction handed over the building to Branston last week.

The new cold store is a significant part of a £5m investment in the potato producer’s Branston site.

An increase in volume and an extremely healthy forecast for 2008 prompted Branston Ltd, the main potato supplier to Tesco, to develop its Lincolnshire factory.

IMA Cooling Systems are behind the cold store’s design. The company’s passive system uses less than 25% of the power associated with normal long terms cooling systems. Less fan power put in, means less heat to take out, creating a double saving as energy usage is concerned.

"The energy savings of this system are really just a bonus as it is the ability to store produce for longer and to better quality levels that is the unique feature of our method" says IMA Cooling Systems Managing Director, John Dye.

As well as the new cold store, the company has improved and extended its staff facilities; despatch areas; built a new dedicated assembly line and installed a new packing line.

£200,000 has been invested in improving the site’s canteen, rest rooms, shower and toilet facilities. Nearly £1 million has been spent on extending the dispatch area and introducing new temperature controlled storage areas.

Elsewhere on site, production facilities have been streamlined and modernised to improve efficiency. As well as a completely new loading bay, the site now benefits from a £200,000 investment in its packing facilities, which will help Branston deliver a wider variety of products.

Further capital expenditure is planned before the end of 2007, with the company commencing working on a new production, logistics and maintenance office early next month.

"2008 is going to be a very busy year for Branston and we have to make sure we’re ready for it," says Nick Turnbull, Branston’s Technical Director. "We have secured greater volume for next year and so we’re going to be handling even more potatoes. We need to be in a position to work as effectively and efficiently as possible and that means having the right facilities. Over the course of the last 18 months we’ve conducted a thorough evaluation of our Branston site and developed an improvement plan that will make what is already a highly efficient facility capable of even more impressive performance.

"The jewel in our crown is truly the new cold store, which can house enough potatoes to produce 36 million meals! The fact we need a cold store so big, just goes to show how much people love eating spuds!