Prefab homes making facility turned into water extraction and bottling plant
Huddersfield-based Penmoor (UK) Ltd has restored and converted a disused manufacturing facility in Flaxby, North Yorkshire, after acquiring it for £16m.
The company, which has been in the business of producing bottled water in Shepley, Huddersfield for over 20 years, took over the site following the insolvency of Ilke Homes.
It had been left abandoned and subjected to vandalism and large-scale theft of electrical cables and equipment.
Credit: markflynnphotography.com
The site comprises a large open plan building, previously used to make prefabricated homes with associated offices, car parking and its own roundabout and spur off the A59.
Penmoor, advised by Huddersfield-based Eaton Smith solicitors, took on the challenge of converting the property into a water extraction and bottling plant.
It intends this to be a “one stop shop” for the manufacturing and distribution of bottled water including abstracting the water on site, filtering it, making the bottles, bottling the water, and distributing it, minimising the environmental impact of importing bottles and components externally.
The business says it should be able to extract over a billion litres of high-quality water every year. It aims to produce over 104,000 bottles of water every hour.
Penmoor is aiming to begin production this spring. The site will feature state-of-the-art machinery engineered specifically for the company, allowing it to automate most of the process.
Credit: markflynnphotography.com
It has been backed by the commercial property team at Eaton Smith, led by associate solicitor Ian Holdsworth supported by partner James Burgess and associate solicitor Jamie Humpheson.
James Smith, managing director of Penmoor, said: “We have been looking to expand our operations for over five years, but our strict requirement for a high quality water source in a centralised location failed to yield any results.
“When this site became available we had to move quickly and covertly. The team at Eaton Smith did a seamless job from start to finish in what turned out to be a very complex purchase.
“Our timescales seemed impossibly tight, but they delivered and I couldn’t be happier with this outcome.”
