Bird feed manufacturer flies high with £1m investment
Bird seed manufacturer Johnston & Jeff has announced a £1m expansion of its factory.
The investment is also helping the family firm mark its 140th anniversary celebrations.
The business, based at Gilberdyke, East Yorkshire, makes feed for garden birds, parrots and aviary birds, as well as handcrafted hutches, bird tables and nest boxes.
It counts well-known large chain garden centres among its clients and independent pet shops across the whole of the UK. The firm says it is making the investment due to rising demand across all its key markets.
Johnston & Jeff’s managing director, Richard Johnston, said the expansion was the biggest investment the company has made since moving from its original premises in Hull to Gilberdyke in 2002.
The money is funding a 12,000 sq ft warehouse. This is an addition to the company’s existing factory/warehouse capacity, and takes its total warehouse space up to 107,000 sq ft.
There has also been a four-fold increase in the company’s pallet bay capacity, with the number of bays increasing from 485 to 2,000.
It will also see Johnston & Jeff build new offices on their site at Gateway Business Park, and fund additional machinery including two computer-controlled multi-head weighers, a bagging line, and a palletising robot which loads the sacks on to pallets.
Johnston said: “People love birds, be it pet owners whose passion is keeping aviary birds and parrots, or the people who simply want to attract more wild birds in their garden by feeding them, because of the sheer pleasure of watching them.
“As a result, we’ve seen significant growth in all our key markets and that is what has prompted us to make this investment. We’ve committed to ensuring we can continue to meet the rising demand for bird feed of the highest quality, and expanding our factory and investing in state-of-the-art equipment is the best way we can achieve that.”
Johnston & Jeff employs 50 staff who make around 500 tonnes of premium bird food each week, across more than 300 product lines.
Work has already got underway on the new warehouse, and once the project has been completed the business’s output is expected to rise significantly due to extra capacity and the efficiencies the investment will bring.
Johnston added that Johnston & Jeff’s 140th anniversary was a fantastic opportunity to take the business to the next level.
He said: “Johnston & Jeff started life in High Street, Hull in 1880. To be still owned by the same family 140 years later and to be celebrating that with an ambitious expansion plan is a very special feeling.
“We cannot wait to share everything we have planned this year.”
