RGF cash tastes good for food companies

SEVEN food companies in one of the Humber’s priority sectors have secured £1.4m of the RGF cash to invest a total of £12.7m on business growth projects, creating 222 jobs.

Food companies from across the region have benefited from the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing the Humber programme, part of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, including Chaucer Foods, Hider Foods, Burgess Pet Care, Atom Beers, Napier Brown, Cranswick Foods and Riva Foods, with others in the pipeline.

Chaucer Foods, based in Freightliner Road in Hull, is making a £1.5m investment in its site to expand into new markets by buying new plant and updating its premises.

The scheme will create up to 50 jobs, adding to the 1500 jobs created with support from the £30m Growing the Humber scheme so far.

Chaucer is investing in equipment that will be used to manufacture a new bread based snacking product for the European retail market.

Already a leading supplier of bread based products into the industrial and food service markets, this investment helps Chaucer with its plans to grow the business by diversifying into other bread related market sectors.

Jeff Kipling, finance director of Chaucer Foods, said: “We’re pleased to be able to increase our capacity and capability at our base in Hull allowing us to employ more people through expansion into new markets.”

David Kilburn, chair of the Humber LEP Investment Board, said: “It is great to see a wealth of growth projects being helped by the RGF funded Growing the Humber programme helping to create more than 200 jobs in the LEPs priority sectors.

“There is still some time for businesses to talk to us about their business growth projects and whether the Growing the Humber Project can help. We urge them to get in touch for a discussion as soon as possible.”