£50m Dove Valley project could be biggest since Toyota
WORK on a 540,000 sq ft bottling plant near Ashbourne that will supply soft drinks to Lidl could get under way within a matter of months.
The £50 million plans for
Dove Valley Park in Foston has been called the “largest single investment in South Derbyshire since Toyota”.
Work could get under way this summer, with the plans originally indicating more than 150 jobs would be created.
Clowes Developments, which is behind the construction plans, is now saying the job figure could run into “hundreds”.
Planning permission was given in December 2019, and since then a series of 200ft-plus boreholes have been sunk to see if there is enough good quality water to supply the factory.
An aquifer being tapped into is said to contain water that has percolated down over the past 400 years or more. The preparatory works have continued despite Covid-19 and Brexit.
Clowes developments will build the factory for the MEG group of companies – a subsidiary of the Schwarz Group, the German retail giant that owns and operates Lidl.
It will be constructed on a 30acre plot of farmland to the north of the existing buildings on the business park, which is just off the A50.
Frank Mccardle, chief executive of South Derbyshire District Council said: “We have worked closely with the MEG team since their original enquiry, in bringing this new state-of-theart production facility to South Derbyshire, on Dove Valley Park.
“This major inward investment has been secured through a dedicated approach, supported by the many benefits of locating in our district. Job creation is always welcome along with energy efficient technology that this plant will incorporate.”
The site will be MEG Group’s first production plant in the UK and will supply Lidl with mineral water and soft drinks for supermarkets in the UK and Ireland.
Clowes Developments director Paul Shanley said: “We have established an excellent working relationship with the MEG
Group team, based in Germany, and more locally with South Derbyshire District Council, who have been instrumental in enabling this major inward investment for the region and indeed the UK.”
In January, Clowes announced it had submitted plans to add up to 190,000 sq ft of warehousing to the 200 acre Dove Valley Park.
Existing tenants include
JCB Power Systems, Futaba International, Tophat, Truma and Kuehne and Nagel.
Clowes has applied for twophase planning consent for an initial speculatively built unit of up to 150,000 sq ft – with an option to expand that by an additional 40,000 sq ft