North West bottling business expands with £10m funding boost
Privately-owned brewery and bottling business, Thomas Hardy Holdings, has today announced the completion of an expansion development at its Burtonwood plant for the introduction of a second bottling line.
This follows the recent completion of works at its second plant in Kendal. Both developments are now operational and have been supported by £10m-worth of funding from Barclays, which has led to the creation of 50 jobs.
Thomas Hardy provides contract bottling facilities dedicated to servicing and supporting the beer and beverage industries.
Founded in 1997, the business was the brainchild of Peter Ward, who, with more than 30 years’ experience at Courage, identified a market gap for packaging solutions for international client brands and UK brewer clients in need of production facilities.
Based in Burtonwood, Cheshire, the business is now jointly led by Neil Voss and Peter’s son, Chris Ward.
A £3m spend at Kendal has enabled improved efficiency and consistency of performance, and the building extension at Burtonwood has introduced a complete second bottling line, ensuring that the business can continue to meet increasing demand for its services with an additional 10-15 million case capacity.
Funding of £10m from Barclays has assisted against an overall spend of around £17m.
Neil Voss said: “We are delighted to have Barclays support our ambitious growth plans with a £10m funding package to extend the facilities available to our customers at our two plants and pave the way for the creation of circa 50 new local jobs.
“Paul Devenport and the Barclays team have been excellent throughout the process and have now become our exclusive banking partners as we move towards 2020 and beyond. The on-boarding team made the whole process of moving banks simple, straightforward and, thankfully, painless.
“Barclays’ speed of response, understanding of our business and timescale for a project to install a new glass bottling line at our Burtonwood facility has enabled Thomas Hardy to stay on track to deliver additional capacity to our exciting, high profile customers.”
Bottling line
Paul Devenport, Barclays relationship director who put together the funding package for this deal, said: “It’s been wonderful to work with the fantastic team at Thomas Hardy to help make their dreams for the future of the business to become a reality.
“We’ve known the team for five years and have been delighted to welcome them to Barclays at such a pivotal time for their business.
“Combining our industry knowledge with their ambitious plans, we were able to agree a deal to enable the expansion, modernisation and future prosperity of the business.
“This significant capital expenditure will enable Thomas Hardy to maintain their competitive advantage and future-proof the operation for years to come.”
