Pet food business opens 100,000 sq ft facility following £7m investment

DRY pet food producer Inspired Pet Nutrition, formerly Wagg Foods, has opened its 100,000 sq ft distribution centre and offices near to its existing facilities at Dalton Airfield in North Yorkshire.

The firm has invested some £7m in building and fitting out the new automated site which currently has the capacity to store around 11,500 pallets with room to add a further 5,000 spaces if required.

Around 30 office staff will also move to the new building with production personnel taking over their current office space which will be used for meeting rooms and improved canteen facilities.

The investment is in addition to the £20m the business has spent over the past five years on automating production in its existing two mills which are also on Dalton Airfield.

A further £3m is scheduled to be spent on the mills in the next two years.

Morrison’s supermarkets CEO David Potts performed the opening ceremony along with Inspired Pet Nutrition’s managing director Richard Page.

Mr Page told said: “Wagg is the volume market leader and Harringtons continues to be one of the fastest growing brands in dried dog food and we will also have some exciting product launches this summer under the Harringtons name.  We believe that a clearer focus on these two main brands will be achieved by having a separate identity for the overall business.

“Our aim still remains the production of the highest quality pet food products at a competitive price through constant improvement in manufacturing processes and product innovation.  This investment will further increase efficiency as the new site significantly boosts our stock holding capacity so longer production runs are possible.  Therefore, equipment downtime associated with changing over product lines is reduced along with the associated packaging waste.”