A pet food maker says he’s starting to reap the rewards of a £ 5million investment in his business.

Grove Pet Foods built a new packing hall at its North Scarle, Lincolnshire site earlier this year which was followed by the installation of a new multi-head bagger – at a cost of $ 2.5million of pounds sterling.

The new bagging line, which handles “smaller” bags from 90g to 6kg, is fully automated and shares the new hall with a much larger line, filling from 6kg to 25kg.

But Grove didn’t stop there. The administrators have just commissioned a new £ 1.5million warehouse, which has been built over the past five months, and offers 3,000 pallet locations.

Site production manager Richard Cornwell said these investments are designed to help Grove meet growing demand as the company targets more customers and potential markets at home and abroad. The good news is that they are already proving their worth.

“Coincidentally, the upgrade to the site’s facilities came at a time when the UK alone has seen a massive increase in the number of pet owners, due to the coronavirus pandemic, forcing people to self-isolate or switch to working from home.

“These investments mean that our team of 80 people – who work 24 hours a day, five days a week producing 400-450 tonnes of complete dry pet food and mixers – are well positioned to help. projected growth of the business.

“Our small bag processing line has automated a process that was previously done by hand. This made it easier for staff to perform quality checks and increased overall efficiency, ”said Cornwell.

Grove manufactures food for dogs, cats, hedgehogs, rabbits, swans, ducks and fish and Cornwell said the company’s equipment has created smoother operations across the board.

“We pay great attention to detail and quality is our priority from the time we receive the raw materials to the creation and shipment of the food to our customers.

“For example, we have a special optical sorting system, which helps identify foreign bodies and verify that the product meets specifications. We also take x-rays of our products. This gives us extra confidence in our products.

Grove produces its own Vitalin and Alpha feeds, but feeds for other brands, supplying a wide variety of wholesale customers.

“Not everything is destined for the internal market either. Export sales represent approximately 20% of our production in North Scarle, with orders shipped throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, ”said Cornwell.

“There are a lot of other potential customers for our sales and marketing to target,” he added.

Grove’s confident outlook comes after the company has grown several times over the past five years.

Grove Pet Foods also has a smaller production site in Retford and a distribution center in Gamston, both in Nottinghamshire.

Ashleigh Bolton, Lincoln Branch Manager at Red Recruitment 24: 7, was delighted to visit the company after members of the workforce were recommended for recognition by their managers.

She added: “We were delighted to congratulate Automatic Packaging Line Operator Peter Waddington and Operator Stephen Moorhouse for how quickly they became part of the Grove team and for all the hard work they did. ‘they have accomplished so far.