AG Barr invests £11M at Milton Keynes
A new warehouse will be built at the state-of-the-art facility, which was completed in May 2013 and manufactures 9.5M cans of product a year, chief executive Roger White said.
The warehouse will be built on 1.5 acres of newly acquired land, which cost £4M. An agreement to purchase a further 3.86 acres of land had also been made, White added.
‘Future expansion’
“The total cost of this development is £11M including £4M for the land for additional future expansion,” he said.
Revenue for the firm was down 1.1% for the 15 weeks to May 9, which included a £3M contribution from the cocktail manufacturing business Funkin, which AG Barr acquired in a deal reportedly worth up to £21M in February this year.
The slow start to the year had been expected, Investec analyst Nicola Mallard claimed. “This weaker start was expected and is the result of a strong close to 2014, testing quarter 1 2014 comparatives, cooler weather and a rephrasing of the group’s promotional plans this year,” she said.
Activity around last year’s Commonwealth games in Glasgow had also provided a boost to last year’s sales, she added.
Margins stay low
Revenues for the first half of 2015 would also be down, Mallard predicted. However, profits for the same period could rise if the firm’s margins continued to stay low.
New product development activity for the summer would, however, provide AG Barr with an uplift in second half of the year, she added.
Meanwhile, Milton Keynes’s factory manager Tim Stacey told FoodManufacture.co.uk the site would double its output to 19M cans by the end of the year.
Also, see our photogallery for an exclusive look inside AG Barr Milton Keyene’s factory and to see the full production process, including the site’s laser-guided vehicles and automated palletiser.
