Wales’ leading soft drinks company has invested millions of pounds in new office and production facilities as part of ambitious expansion plans. Radnor Hills hopes to increase production capacity and create 30 new jobs following the investment at its headquarters in Knighton, Powys.
The expansion includes 17,000 sq ft in new office space, at a cost of £2.5m, and £4.5m on a new glass filling line at its 300,000 sq ft factory.
Founder and managing director William Watkins said the investment was the result of Radnor’s organic growth with profits generated reinvested into the business. "We’re investing in our buildings, equipment, staff and energy source. To run a site like this it’s multi-dimensional. Investment needs to be put into all different sides of the business so that we can grow and meet our sustainability targets."
Read more: World's first rail testing centre in Wales partners with Hitachi Rail
The company is also investing in automation to improve efficiencies on the production line and mitigate cost increases. “We've got an ongoing program to replace and upgrade machinery,” said the managing director.
It follows Radnor’s impressive growth in the last year as the economy recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic. In its last financial year ending 31 May 2022, it saw sales of £58m, up from £41m in 2021, and made a pre-tax profit of £9.1m.
The firm supplies its glass, canned, plastic, and Tetrapak packaged products to over 250 UK wholesalers and supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. It also supplies the public sector including the NHS and schools with its Radnor Splash range. It is the only producer that does all four packaging formats for its soft drinks on site in the whole of the UK.
Radnor has also been undertaking a recruitment drive as part of expansion plans. In the last two years, it has already created over 100 new jobs taking its total workforce to 240 staff. Now, Mr Watkins said he plans to recruit a further 25 to 30 people in the next 12 months.
“When we’re investing in staff we’ve got to be thinking 12 months down the road because people we bring in need to be trained to use our machines and work on our production lines,” he said. “We’re expecting 20% growth next year which means taking on around 20% more staff and investing in training those we recruit.”
The company works with the Welsh Government to train its employees, with 56 staff currently on apprenticeship training or completing degrees.
Also a part of its expenditure is a £1.8m investment in a new ground-mounted solar array across 1.2 hectares of the business' site to power its factory at Heartsease Farm. There are hopes the solar farm will be in operation from next month.
It will produce 2,000 kWh of energy a year and power 21% of the company’s energy needs, helping to mitigate rising energy costs and contribute to its sustainability credentials.
“We will only be allowed to export 11 of those kilowatts into the grid, but that's not really an issue for us because we produce 24 hours a day,” said Mr Wakins. “It will reduce our incoming mains feed almost instantly. The cost of generating solar energy per unit is 2.5p per unit and our current price is 34p per unit.”
The business has also been anticipating the incoming deposit return scheme. Wales is working with England and Northern Ireland to set up a joint scheme, with the Welsh Government hoping it can be introduced by 2025. It aims to increase the number of single-use bottles and cans that are recycled by adding a 20p deposit to all containers made of PET plastic, metal or glass. It applies to both alcoholic and soft drinks.
Scotland had planned to be the first UK nation to launch the scheme in August this year, but the country’s newly-appointed First Minister Humza Yousaf this week announced that the scheme would now be delayed until March 2024 following fierce opposition from many small breweries and distilleries.
Despite the concerns voiced by some drinks producers, Mr Watkins said he was not against a deposit return scheme in Wales.
“It’s a really important move for the drinks industry. I would say most of us in the industry are wanting to see a deposit return scheme come into place. I certainly am. The bottles that we use are very recyclable but we don’t see them collected and recycled in the numbers that they should so this scheme will help that,” he said.
“Nobody wants to see our bottles, least of all us, not ending up back in the recycling stream. We want the material back so we can produce more bottles with it. Even now, 30% of our bottles are produced using recycled plastic. But I would like that to be 100%.
“There will be a cost to it but I think the cost of doing nothing is more concerning. We do need to embrace this and there is a cost to having a sustainable circular economy, we can’t get away from that. It’s all part of our net zero commitments we’ve made as a country and food and drink packaging has to be part of that.”
Read more:
