Danish Crown to build £100m bacon factory in Greater Manchester town

Danish Crown, the global food company, is investing £100m in a new bacon factory in Rochdale, Greater Manchester creating hundreds of new jobs.

The 30,500 sq m facility is due to begin production in the second half of 2023 and will create around 300 specialised jobs once it is fully operational, producing more than 900 tonnes of bacon and gammon a week.  

The processing facility will use the latest tech to slice and pack bacon and gammon produced to UK welfare and food safety standards.

Jais Valeur, CEO at Danish Crown, said: “Danish Crown has a long heritage in the UK, bringing British consumers high quality bacon and pork products for over 135 years.

“This investment forms the next step in our commitment to the UK market, bringing our customers a reliable, transparent supply of high-quality bacon to help meet demand, produced to high sustainability and welfare standards.”

Danish Crown processing facility

The new site will be 100% powered by renewable energy and built to market-leading environmental standards, supporting Danish Crown’s wider ambition to deliver climate neutral meat production by 2050.

Heat recovery from the plant’s utility systems will supplement conventional heating sources to heat the office space and provide hot water, whilst ammonia will be used as a refrigerant to minimise environmental impact.

Food waste will be reduced through the use of bacon offcuts in other products such as sausages, whilst a circular packaging system for deliveries of pork to the site will minimise packaging waste.  

Jais added: “The future of meat will be based on high quality products that are as sustainable as possible.

“We know this is an ambition shared by many of our customers in the UK and with this new factory, we look forward to working more closely with them towards a more sustainable future for food production.”