Nestlé completes first part of £15m wafer investment programme
Following the completion of the programme in two years, the company’s UK York Factory will have refurbished and new lines.
A spokesperson for Nestlé told ConfectioneryNews.com that the £15m investment will include equipment for the entire manufacturing process, in addition to ovens, batter production and maturation process.
Nestlé has spent £5m to complete the first stage of the project. Once completed, the factory will be fitted with further new and upgraded ovens that manufacture the wafers for Kit Kat.
The wafer factory makes nearly 30m wafer sheets per year for more than a billion Kit Kats manufactured annually.
Production manager, Jas Scott de Martinville, said: “The aim with this investment is to ensure that we deliver the freshest wafer to our moulding plants.”
Save energy
Nestlé claims the new assets will also help cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent and gas consumption by 30 per cent.
“They will allow us to be more efficient than we have ever been before reaching figures in excess of 93 per cent,” said the company.
Zero Waste goal
Nestlé said the investment will also drive waste down, helping the company to reach its ultimate zero waste goal.
Last year the company announced its aim to achieve zero total waste in all of its 14 factories in the UK and Ireland by 2015.
The company has already done so at its Girvan factory in Scotland. It describes the zero waste goal as one of its most ambitious projects.
Nestlé UK&I’s chairman and CEO Paul Grimwood said: “We are determined to drive down waste at all levels of our operations – whether it’s aiming for zero waste to landfill or helping our consumers to reduce the amount that they throw away by providing recyclable packaging.
