University funding supports water company’s expansion

The National Forest Spring Water Company has received funding from the University of Derby’s Invest to Grow programme to support its research and development into the Midlands.

The University has awarded £67,662, as well as a loan of £37,662 to the company for the development of a new manufacturing unit within its existing site and to buy a new extraction pump that has created three new jobs and increased turnover.

The company extracts water from its site in Melbourne, filters and bottles it, then supplies it to businesses and educational establishments. They provide the bottled water in a variety of sizes, including larger bottles for the water cooler industry.

Due to the increased demand for its water from customers such as Edgar’s Water based mainly in Kent, the company needed to expand its production capacity as it heavily relied on a single facility and water extraction pump. These new developments have enabled the company to run two production lines instead of one, as well as providing more space for stock and a new water storage tank.

Workload can now be spread evenly to ease pressure on current staff. The company has introduced longer split shift days so that both production lines can run simultaneously.

The funding has enhanced the businesses productivity by 35 per cent, which has led to working with new clients and requests for bigger orders. The increased turnover has enabled them to introduce improved products such as flavoured water with no added sugar.

The National Forest Spring Water Company work closely with Edgar’s Water so that they can distribute the bottled water across the East Midlands area. Now that it has the new manufacturing unit, Edgar’s Water is able to use a small part of that unit as a Midlands distribution depot.

David Smith, managing director of The National Forest Spring Water Company, said: “The whole process has been superb. Invest to Grow is run very professionally. Its advice and guidance, as well as its funding, was crucial to the success of our project. The team was practical, straight forward and had a common sense approach.”

Mark Wheddon, head of strategic programmes at the University, added: “We are delighted to support National Forest Spring Water Company with their exciting growth project through the Invest to Grow Fund and look forward to developing further collaborations with them in the future.”