New £25m milk factory to bring 200 jobs to West Bromwich in 'another vote of confidence in the West Midlands'
More than 200 jobs are to be created at a state-of-the-art new milk and dairy processing factory in West Bromwich, the Mayor of the West Midlands has announced.
Freshways, the UK’s largest independent dairy supplier, has invested £25 million in the facility, which will pasteurise and package almost 900 million pints of fresh milk a year - enough to fill 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
More than 200 people will be employed at the dairy, which is nearing completion, with more jobs likely to follow as the plant scales up - and the business will focus on recruiting local young people in support of the Mayor’s Youth Employment Plan.
The British company has also imported specialist milk processing machinery from India in one of the first major deals to be completed since the UK and Indian Governments struck a free trade deal in July.
Mayor of the West Midlands Richard Parker said: "This major investment in West Bromwich will support British dairy farming, bolster our food supply chain, and create at least 200 new jobs for local people - helping me to deliver on my Growth Plan.
“It also clearly shows how strong trade relationships with India benefit our region - bringing specialist Indian engineering to create one of the UK’s most advanced dairy facilities on our doorstep.
“And it is another vote of confidence in the West Midlands as the best place to invest and grow a business.”
Engineering specialists from IDMC in Gujarat, India, manufactured more than 200 pieces of specialist equipment including five stainless steel silos weighing in at 17 tonnes each and together capable of holding 625,000 litres of fresh British milk; and a team of engineers from India are overseeing the installation and will train Freshways staff in West Bromwich.
IDMC hopes the contract, the biggest it has ever landed outside India, and the new free trade agreement will enable it to partner in more UK dairy projects.
Investment in advanced manufacturing is at the centre of the Mayor’s Growth Plan, launched earlier this year, and was under discussion at the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham yesterday (Tuesday).
The summit, which was co-hosted by the Chancellor, the Mayor and Secretary of State for Business and Trade, gave the West Midlands and other regions the chance to showcase to global investors their potential for growth, innovation, and talent.
During her visit to Birmingham Chancellor Rachel Reeves welcomed the investment in West Bromwich, which she described as "an area probably where previous chancellors didn't focus on but we have focussed on because we want to make sure all parts of the UK benefit from investment".
'Ideally located'
Freshways has seen a huge increase in orders from its food service and retail customers in the first six months of this year, creating a need for the modernised processing capacity at West Bromwich to meet demand.
The new factory, which is expected to start production at the end of the year, will increase Freshways's processing capacity by 25 per cent enabling the company to buy even more fresh milk from hundreds of British dairy farms, many of them based in the Midlands.
Bali Nijjar, managing director of Freshways said: “This new West Midlands dairy hub is ideally located to collect more fresh milk from our loyal British farmers, processing and packing it efficiently and sustainably, before moving it on to our customers.
“We can’t wait to get started in the West Midlands and look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to the business. Our Indian engineering partners and the local contractors are working around the clock to get things ready and we very much hope to start bringing millions of litres of delicious fresh British milk to the site by the end of the year.”
Recruitment for staff at the new dairy on the Park Rose Industrial Estate will start shortly with roles available in engineering, quality assurance, food safety, logistics and support services.
Councillor Kerrie Carmichael, leader of Sandwell Council, welcomed the investment, saying it shows people can "think big" in Sandwell.
She said: “This is great news for West Bromwich. We have a long history of industrial innovation and people making it here in Sandwell, so welcoming the new Freshways plant with its international collaboration and new jobs is another chapter in our story.
“This shows that we can really think big when we encourage investment in Sandwell, as part of our ambition to drive economic growth in the Black Country Growth Corridor, a key element of the West Midlands Growth Plan.”
Freshways is backing the Mayor’s Youth Employment Plan and wants to encourage young talent to explore rewarding career opportunities within the dairy and food sector. The firm's recruitment team will be actively engaging with local schools, colleges and universities, including through job fairs and campus talks, to discuss opportunities from work placements and apprenticeships to full time roles.
