The business secretary has praised a decision by Pepsico to pump £24 million updating its Walkers crisps factory in Lincoln.
The US food and drinks giant – which makes Quavers at the site – said the investment would help it meet growing demand for its snacks and secure the future of the listed factory in Lincoln city centre.
As well as new production and packaging equipment, the money will support apprenticeships and training in existing and new technology.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “It’s brilliant to see PepsiCo doubling-down on its commitment to Lincoln through this significant investment in the city centre factory Walkers has called home for more than half a century.
“This investment will help to deliver on our plan to spread opportunity across the Midlands by future-proofing the jobs of the factory’s outstanding employees by training them to use state of the art equipment, and further bolstering the workforce through their apprenticeship scheme.”
Lincoln site operations manager Nigel Beilby said demand for Quavers had grown in the last year, and the investment will increase capacity at the factory and make space for new production lines.
Mr Beilby said: “We’ve always had a strong heritage in the Midlands, providing jobs to almost 2,000 people in the region across our factories in Lincoln, Leicester and Coventry.
“For decades, our Lincoln factory has brought much-loved Quavers snacks to consumers up and down the country, and with this state-of-the-art technology, we’re confident that the site will continue to serve the nation for many years to come.”
The new equipment will be installed in mid-2022, with initial work now underway.
Pepsico is also putting £1 million into its Walkers factory in Coventry to put in extra equipment to cover for Lincoln while the work is carried out. Coventry makes Doritos, Wotsits, French Fries, Squares, Sunbites and Cheetos.
The new follows multimillion-pound investment in its Skelmersdale and Coventry factories to install specialist compact packaging machinery, which it said had led to a 30 per cent cut in outer packaging on across its multipacks.
A spokeswoman said: “The new equipment at Lincoln will help remove even more packaging from our supply chain.
“In line with our vision to build a world where packaging needs never become waste, these investments form part of our global commitment to reducing, recycling and reinventing our packaging.”
