Plans approved for purpose-built meat production site in Lancashire

A state-of-the-art meat processing facility in Lancashire that will supply some of the UK’s top hotels, restaurants and retailers has been given the green light.

Harrison Pitt Architects has designed the purpose-built facility which will be built at Hillside Farm in Morecambe on behalf of Althams Butchers, one of the area’s biggest employers which counts Northcote Manor, Liverpool FC, Hotel Du Vin/Malmasion and Virgin Trains as customers.

The company, which employs more than 100 staff and supplies prime beef, pork, lamb and fine foods, has outgrown its existing premises at White Lund.

A free-range pork farm that previously operated from the Hillside Farm site closed in 2012 and the farmhouse and outbuildings have been unused since. The redundant buildings will make way for a 55,000 sq ft facility that will feature the latest preparation, packing and refrigeration facilities.

Althams Butchers expects around 25 jobs to be created by the expansion.

Richard Parker, a director of Harrison Pitt Architects, said: “We’re delighted that Althams Butchers can now move forward with its expansion plans, an aspiration that wasn’t possible with the constraints of its existing premises.

“This new facility will allow the business to operate more efficiently and will also provide an economic boost to the area by allowing new jobs to be created.”

On-site parking and cycle storage facilities will be created and Althams Butchers also intends to provide its own shuttle bus service to offer sustainable transport to employees travelling from Heysham and Morecambe.

Work on the new premises is due to begin later in 2018.

Established in 1856 by Thomas Altham, a local farmer, Althams Butchers is still an independent family-owned business.

Today the business is operated by Thomas Altham’s great, great grandsons James and Richard Altham.