The company, whose clients include Greencore and 2 Sisters Food Group, makes rigid plastic packaging for ready meals and protein food trays in the UK, Scandinavia and Benelux but wants to expand further into the meat industry.
Double workforce
Joe Iannidinardo, managing director, Faerch Plast UK, told FoodProductionDaily the company originally bought a 30,000m² plot of land adjacent to the factory in 2012 and in the coming years it will use this to increase capacity.
The firm also plans to double its workforce by 50% from 50 to 100 staff.
“We want to double our North-East production capacity and the factory and the adjacent land gives us the head room to expand,” he said.
“We are an ambitious company and we want to keep on growing into the meat market and into other cold food products. The additional packaging extrusion line gives us the opportunity to expand into those areas.”
EQT acquisition
Iannidinardo added the extrusion line will be operational by 2015 and to complement the investment, the company will install more forming lines, depending on the products.
Earlier this year, Faerch Plast, was bought by private equity group EQT.
Iannidinardo said the expansion also underlines the commitment of its new owners, EQT, to continue investing in Faerch Plast’s growth.
The company strengthened its 12-year relationship with Cook frozen ready meals recently for high performance of its CPET trays which have dual ovenability and temperature tolerance from -4F (-20C°) to 430F (220C°), for freezer-to-oven or microwave.