‘Hundreds’ of jobs to be created as food processing plant gets go-ahead

Planning permission has been granted for Sadel Group to develop a new food processing facility at its site in Easton, Lincolnshire.

Alongside the new 200,000 sq ft food processing development, Magnavale (a cold storage platform owned by the Sadel Group) is currently building a £130m, fully-automated, 101,000 pallet cold storage facility, due to be completed in Q3 2024 and already operates a further 45,000 pallets of existing cold storage on site. The newly approved plans for a major food production and processing factory solidify the site as the first of Sadel Group’s wider ‘Food Hub’ strategy.

Sadel Group’s Food Hubs co-locate and integrate food production with temperature-controlled storage, reducing food-miles which in turn enhances shelf-life, and reduces both food waste and carbon emissions.

The planning committee meeting for South Kesteven District Council unanimously voted in favour of regeneration plans that will see food production return to Easton, Lincolnshire. The scheme will create “hundreds” of jobs, says Sadel.

The food production areas of the site have been mostly dormant since May 2020, when McCains closed one of their production facilities, which led to the loss of approximately 230 jobs. The site has a long history of food processing and food storage which supported local agriculture and farming communities, particularly the important pea and bean harvests which were made impossible when the facilities to process and store them closed.