Made In Milton Keynes from Girders.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Made In Milton Keynes from Girders."

Amos Gibbs
5 years ago
Views:

New release Embargoed 12 noon Friday 5 th December 2014. Made In Milton Keynes from Girders. Local MP visits A.G.Barr s new 41m site in the town. Mark Lancaster, MP for Milton Keynes North, visited A.

1 New release Embargoed 12 noon Friday 5 th December Made In Milton Keynes from Girders. Local MP visits A.G.Barr s new 41m site in the town. Mark Lancaster, MP for Milton Keynes North, visited A.G.Barr s new 41m state of the art manufacturing and warehousing facility at Magna Park today (Friday 5 th December) to see how the company was progressing at its new site. A.G.Barr is the UK s leading independent soft drinks business with brands like IRN-BRU, Rubicon, Strathmore Water and Barr Flavours helping the company to achieve sales of 254m in The new 225,000 sq ft site was completed in April 2013 and employs over 100 people with further recruitment currently taking place to fill new roles in production and administration. Mark was shown the state of the art canning line by Factory Manager Tim Stacey which makes 330ml and 500ml pack sizes and is capable of producing 33 cans per second and over 15 million cases a year, doubling A.G.Barr s current canning production capacity. He was also briefed on the company s business plans by Marketing Director, Adrian Troy which covered further expansion plans for the factory. The production of multipack cans will take place from January 2015 and the current installation of 3 high speed carton filling lines will see cartons introduced from Easter These developments will double the plants current output with scope for a further 2 high speed production lines in the future which would take the total production capacity of the site to over 40m cases / year. Mark Lancaster MP said: A. G Barr s new site here in Milton Keynes is very impressive, not only related to the new technology and equipment already operating here but also, regarding the company s plans for the ongoing development of the site and the jobs this is bringing to the area.

2 Marketing Director Adrian Troy commented: We are excited about our future development plans here in Milton Keynes and we are pleased that Mark could join us today to hear about the progress we are making. This state of the art facility has already doubled our canning capacity and we are bringing in other pack formats as well like cartons. Our sales in England are growing rapidly and this is a great location to serve many of our key customers and consumers here. ENDS For further information please contact: Mark Jephcott PR Manager A.G.Barr p.l.c markjephcott@agbarr.co.uk

3 Notes to Editors. Barr s Magna Park Site Magna Park, Milton Keynes is a flagship UK development site, designed to provide a high quality business environment for businesses like Barr s seeking state-of-the-art production, logistics and warehouse accommodation with easy access to main road and rail routes Barr s have invested over 41m in the sites construction, warehousing infrastructure and production capability Magna Park will initially support a canning line for 330ml and 500ml cans together with a warehousing operation. In January 2015 the site will start to produce multipack cans. Magna park will become our national carton production site from Easter 2015 making 288ml and 1lt pack formats on 3 new high speed filling lines. There will also be enough space remaining on the factory floor for a further 2 high speed production lines in the future which would take the total production capacity of the site to over 40m cases / year. Built in eleven months it took 125,000 man-hours to construct using up 1,200 tons of steel and 980,000 hand-laid tiles. The site is built on 12.7 acres (five hectares) of land with a footprint of 225,000 square feet (21,000 square metres) The site can produce 15 million cases of cans a year which doubles A.G.Barr s total canning production capacity The site will increase A.G.Barr s carbonated soft drinks PET production capacity for 500ml and 2lt packs by 40% (capable of making 200m PET bottles per year) when this comes on stream at a future date to be confirmed The site will have scope for future expansion of the production capabilities whilst also allowing for future expansion of the warehousing capacity Gazeley completed the construction and hand over of the site to A.G.Barr in April 2013 becoming operational a few months later with the commissioning of the canning line and the warehousing infrastructure. Magna Park is an ideal location from which A.G.Barr can support and service a number of its key operations in England.

4 A.G.Barr Company facts Barr s portfolio of soft drinks includes the iconic IRN-BRU brand known by many as Scotland s Other National Drink and Made In Scotland from Girders, Rubicon juice drinks the UK s No1 Exotic Juice Drinks Brand, Barr flavoured carbonates, Strathmore Spring Water the No1 water brand in the UK HORECA channel (Hotels, Restaurants, Caterers), Sun Exotic and Simply juice drinks, together with strong regional brands like Tizer, DNB (Dandillion & Burdock flavour), KA the UK s No1 flavoured Caribbean drink and Barr Red Kola (a popular drink in Scotland). The company also produces the Rockstar Energy Drink under licence from US brand owner Rockstar Inc and has recently announced a new 10-year partnership with Dr Pepper Snapple Group in the US to sell, market and distribute the Snapple brand in the UK and part of Europe. A. G. Barr has an approx 3.1% share of the soft drinks market in GB with a 12.5% market share in Scotland. source: Neilsen Total GB value share MAT to Annual company turnover 254 million (to January 2014) Approximately 950 people employed at 14 sites across the country IRN-BRU Regular and Sugar-Free Robert Barr and his son Andrew Greig Barr jointly launched BARRS IRON-BREW in 1901 containing 32 ingredients IRN-BRU is loved throughout Scotland and is seen by many as part of the culture of the Scottish Nation - widely known as 'Scotland's Other National Drink' and Made In Scotland from Girders. IRN-BRU is A.G.Barr s biggest brand with seventeen 330ml can equivalents of IRN-BRU sold every second. One in three cans of IRN-BRU sold is Sugar Free.

5 Secret Recipe The secret recipe for Barrs IRON BREW has been handed down from one generation of the Barr family to the next and today only three people in the world, former Chairman Robin Barr (great, grandson of the founder), his daughter Julie Barr (Legal Affairs and Company Secretary) and one other A.G.Barr board director whose name remains confidential know the secret recipe of IRN-BRU. IRN-BRU does contain iron. Beyond confirming that BARRS IRON-BREW was launched in 1901 containing 32 ingredients I am afraid we can tell you no more!

6 History 1875: Barr soft drinks business was started by Robert Barr in Falkirk. His three sons Robert Fulton Barr, Andrew Greig Barr and William Snodgrass Barr all worked with their father in the Falkirk business. 1887: Robert s son Robert Fulton Barr decided to start his own soft drinks business in Great Eastern Road, Glasgow, later renamed The Gallowgate. 1892: Five years after getting his Glasgow business off the ground Robert Fulton moved to Ireland and it was left to his brother Andrew Greig Barr (from whom the company gets its name) to take over as sole proprietor the name on the labels changed from RF Barr & Co to AG Barr & Co. 1901: Robert Barr and his son Andrew Greig Barr jointly launched BARRS IRON-BREW containing 32 ingredients 1905: All soft drinks were sold in returnable glass bottles at this time and the first bottle deposit of one half penny was introduced to motivate the public to return more of them. Barrs still operates this scheme in Scotland today on its 750ml returnable glass bottles which have a 30p per bottle deposit The brand name was re-spelt IRN-BRU following the proposed introduction of new food labelling regulations in the UK which stipulated that brand names should be literally true. Barr s IRON BREW did contain iron but it wasn t brewed and so the decision was taken by then Chairman Robert Barr (grandson of the founder) to use the phonetic spelling IRN-BRU. 1970s / 1980 s Barr s iconic IRN-BRU Your Other National Drink and Made in Scotland from Girders TV advertising campaigns were screened 1972: Barr acquire Tizer Ltd 1996 Barr's Cumbernauld factory is opened 2001: IRN-BRU declared the No1 grocery brand in Scotland 2006: Barr acquire Strathmore Spring Water 2008: Barr acquire Rubicon exotic juice drinks brand 2013: The first cans are produced at Barr s new 41m production and warehousing facility at Magna Park Milton Keynes 2014: A.G. Barr p.l.c. is the Official Supporter of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Team Scotland.

STONEBRIDGE PARK. DESIGN & BUILD INDUSTRIAL / WAREHOUSE UNITS 20,000 sq ft to 100,000 sq ft (1,858 to 9,220 sq m)

STONEBRIDGE PARK. DESIGN & BUILD INDUSTRIAL / WAREHOUSE UNITS 20,000 sq ft to 100,000 sq ft (1,858 to 9,220 sq m) STONEBRIDGE PARK L I V E R P O O L A 5 8 0 E A S T L A N C A S H I R E R O A D M 5 7 J U N C T I O N 4 DESIGN & BUILD INDUSTRIAL / WAREHOUSE UNITS 20,000 sq ft to 100,000 sq ft (1,858 to 9,220 sq m) LIVERPOOL