Mackie’s makes £300k investment for the future

The north-east’s most famous ice cream brand has invested £300,000 towards production improvements to help it meet increased demand driven by exports.

In a move to further reduce its carbon footprint, Mackie’s of Scotland said it has bought a £250,000 machine to produce lids for its two-litre tubs on the same site as it makes its ice cream.

The ice cream producer, which made two million of the tubs last year, will invest a further £50,000 on extending the factory to make room for the new equipment, the firm said.

The investment by Mackie’s was to primarily ensure the miles its packaging has to travel are minimal and will mean all the components of the ice cream tubs are made on the family farm in Aberdeenshire.

Previously the tubs were shipped from Sweden to Aberdeen covering 1,750 miles and contributing significantly to CO2 emissions. Now they have to travel just 200 metres to the moulding room.

Though a considerable investment, Mackie’s said it expects to see the new machinery pay for itself over the next five years.

Gerry Stephens, finance director at the firm, said: “Our two-litre tubs of traditional ice cream are well-established favourites in Scotland and are becoming popular in East

Asia. We have a machine that makes our two-litre tubs on site but it had to alternate between moulds for making the tub and then the lid and it just couldn’t keep up. Previously we would buy our tubs in from Sweden but, keen to keep emissions low, we invested in our own kit in 2012.”

The new machinery will allow for more flexibility to make bespoke tubs, as well as bilingual labels for export markets. The firm says it will also benefit the local area with creation of new jobs on the farm – both in making packaging and producing ice cream.

Mackie’s announcement of its new lid machine comes shortly after news of its £4million project to replace its old freezers with low-carbon, power-efficient units run on ammonia – a natural refrigerant gas that poses no threat to the environment.

Mr Stephens said: “We want to be the greenest company in Britain and making sure our machinery is efficient and next door to our farm and ice cream factory is all part of that.

“We recycle cardboard and plastic wrapping here on the farm and always consider the life of the packaging for our products. Our tubs are made from a recyclable form of plastic, PP5, which is widely collected and makes tubs robust enough to reuse.

“We keep all the materials we use under review to seek the most efficient and environmentally-friendly way of packaging our ice cream.”

Tubs and lids can now be moulded at the Mackie’s family farm in Aberdeenshire