Devenish Nutrition, the leading edge agri-technology company headquartered in Belfast has further increased its presence in the GB market by opening a food grade premix manufacturing facility in Widnes, near Liverpool.

Patrick McLaughlin, CEO of Devenish Nutrition GB and Ireland said: “The securing of a new premix facility is a further significant step in Devenish Nutrition’s long-term strategy to grow our business in the GB market. The site will significantly increase our production capacity and enable us to meet the growing demand for our products in GB, Ireland and internationally.”

The Widnes site, which is accredited to BRC standard, has multiple production lines which enable medicated and non-medicated production to be kept apart. The state of the art manufacturing facility will help reduce the risk of cross contamination, and there are separate storage areas for raw materials and finished goods. An on-site laboratory will be modified to allow for testing on both raw materials and finished goods.

The facility’s location, close to the M62, M56, M6, and M5 also allows Devenish Nutrition to utilise the excellent infrastructure to ensure the quick distribution of product to its customers throughout GB.

Devenish Nutrition‘s new Commercial Director for GB, Grant Spittal said: “Devenish Nutrition is the leading independent provider of speciality products in the UK and Irish pig, poultry and ruminant premix, piglet creep, equine and pet markets. This facility will enable us to enhance our product and service offering to our customers in GB and establish long and lasting partnerships within this market. This new premises will increase the already high standards of product quality and consistency and service our customs receive, both in GB and Ireland.”

Devenish Nutrition operations director, Eamonn Whelan, said: “Devenish is internationally renowned for the quality of its products and ability to provide bespoke solutions for particular customers’ product and feed management needs. We are delighted to have secured this site as it will take the manufacture of premix to a new standard and play a leading role in our innovation plans to enable us meet our customer needs into the future.”

The addition of this facility comes only six months after the acquisition of Hi Peak Feeds Ltd, the leading multi-species organic feed manufacturer based near Sheffield. This site has since seen over £400,000 of investment already with further development plans for 2014. Devenish Nutrition’s mill in Belfast, which currently produces premix, creep and speciality products is currently in the middle of a £3-million investment programme.