Danish Crown, the global food company, has today announced a major investment in a new processing facility in Rochdale, Greater Manchester to offer UK customers high quality, traceable pork products produced in a more sustainable way and provide a critical supply of bacon for the UK market.

Danish Crown will invest more than £100 million in the new 30,500 sq. m processing facility, which will use highly automated production equipment and the latest processing technology to slice and pack bacon and gammon produced to UK welfare and food safety standards. The facility is due to begin production in the second half of 2023 and will create around 300 specialised jobs once it is fully operational, producing more than 900 tonnes of bacon and gammon a week.

The new site will be 100% powered by renewable energy and built to market-leading environmental standards, supporting Danish Crown’s wider ambition to deliver climate neutral meat production by 2050. Heat recovery from the plant’s utility systems will supplement conventional heating sources to heat the office space and provide hot water, whilst ammonia will be used as a refrigerant to minimise environmental impact. Food waste will be reduced through the use of bacon offcuts in other products such as sausages, whilst a circular packaging system for deliveries of pork to the site will minimise packaging waste.

To support sustainability and transparency, Danish Crown will be able to provide customers with the carbon footprint of their products from farm to fork. From today, the company has begun disclosing its emissions footprint across its full supply chain in its Sustainability Report.

Jais Valeur, CEO, Danish Crown said: “Danish Crown has a long heritage in the UK, bringing British consumers high quality bacon and pork products for over 135 years. This investment forms the next step in our commitment to the UK market, bringing our customers a reliable, transparent supply of high-quality bacon to help meet demand, produced to high sustainability and welfare standards. The future of meat will be based on high quality products that are as sustainable as possible. We know this is an ambition shared by many of our customers in the UK and with this new factory, we look forward to working more closely with them towards a more sustainable future for food production.”

Danish Crown has been exporting to the UK since 1887 and today, the country remains one of the company’s most important export markets. The new investment will create Danish Crown’s first production facility in the UK in three years, following the sale of its Tulip subsidiary to Pilgrim’s in 2019.