Princes to squeeze more out of juice site
JAPANESE-owned food giant Princes is planning a major overhaul of its fruit juice factory in east Manchester.
The company has submitted plans to demolish most of the existing buildings on its site at Lord North St to make better use of production, office and warehousing space.
The site produces branded Princes lines as well as own-brand juice ranges for supermarkets. It is currently split by a railway line running t
hrough it. At the upper part at its junction with Grimshaw Lane, Princes is planning to redevelop a 46,500 sq ft office and production building into dedicated offices of 8,600 sq ft and a new 25,000 sq ft-plus warehouse featring ambient, chilled and cold storage space.
At the lower part of the site, around half of the existing 67,500 sq ft of production facilities will be demolished to make way for an enlarged production site of over 80,000 sq ft.
The work will be carried out by a design team consisting of Sheffield-based architects Bond Bryan, structural engineer Watermans, quantity surveyor Faithful & Gould and consulting engineer Silcock Leedham.
An application submitted by Bond Bryan Architects states that the redevelopment represents a “significant investment” by Princes, which has been owned by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation since 1989.
The firm’s £2bn-turnover European arm is headquartered in Liverpool and is responsible for brands including Jucee squash, Aqua Pura mineral water, Shippam’s spreads and Crisp n’ Dry cooking oil.
The application added that the existing buildings are “relatively poor quality industrial stock”, which will be replaced by more modern metal-clad buildings with portal frames that will also offer improved site access.
