UK natural animal feed additives manufacturer Anpario plc. has announced the opening of its new £1 million, fully automated, bottling plant at its Manton Wood facility in Nottinghamshire.
The new plant will enable the firm to produce its liquid products with greater flexibility in production, allowing Anpario to respond to customer demands more efficiently, whilst maintaining accuracy and consistency.
The new plant will also give the company a built-in capacity for growth and enable it to offer bottling services to other companies.
The new plant, which is the result of a two-year project, can bottle liquid products into standard 1L round neck bottles or dosing bottles of either 1L or 0.5L.
It has a throughput of over 2,000 bottles an hour and complements the previous investments the company has put into automating its production and warehousing facilities.
It comes as the firm also announces half-year results. Sales in the six months to June 30, 2019, were level with the equivalent period in 2018, reported at £14.3 million in 2019 compared to £14.8 million in 2018. Meanwhile, profit before tax rose to £2.3 million from £2.2 million over the same period.
“The impact of African Swine Fever in China and the surrounding region and the US-China trade dispute created tougher trading conditions than during this period last year,” said Anpario chief executive Richard Edwards.
“However, although this affected our business in Asia, this was offset by the very strong recovery in our Latin American and Middle East markets and our continuing progress in the US. These positive trends highlight the benefit of our geographic diversity and the underlying strength of the business.”
Speaking about the new bottling plant, Edwards added: “We made this investment primarily to cater for the increasing demand for Orego-Stim Liquid, our 100% natural oregano essential oil liquid product, which is now being sold in more than 33 countries across the world.”
