‘Hundreds’ of jobs in pipeline
HUNDREDS of new jobs could be created in South Derbyshire with work set to start soon on a new bottling plant.
Work to build the new 540,000 sq ft facility could get under way within a matter of months. It will supply soft drinks to Lidl supermarkets up and down the country.
The £50 million plans for Dove Valley Park, in Foston, have been called the “largest single investment in South Derbyshire since Toyota”.
The original plans indicated that it would create 150 jobs in the area and the work could get started this summer.
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 30-acre 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-the-art 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.
WORK SET TO START ON NEW BOTTLING PLANT FOR LIDL SUPERMARKETS