New £10m meat factory opens in Telford creating 160 jobs

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson officially opened the meat plant, which is the latest business to relocate to booming Telford.

Meat exporting company Pickstock Ashby decided to move from its former home near Ashby-De-La-Zouch, transferring almost all of its existing 65 staff to the town and adding another 40 staff in the move to a bigger home.

Over the course of the next 18 months, Pickstock, which exports 85 per cent of its produce to make it the UK's biggest exporting meat producer, expects to grow its staff in Shropshire to 160.

The company, which sends beef to 22 countries across the world, has changed its name to Pickstock Telford as a result of the move, which saw it building a new meat procession plant from scratch on Hortonwood 45.

It is the latest sign of investment in Telford, as the town rides on the crest of a wave of investment both in its town centre, where hundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on the Southwater and shopping centre schemes, and in its industrial estates. The plant is just yards from the huge new chicken processing plant being built by Faccenda elsewhere on Hortonwood 45 and comes weeks after Heinz revealed it was transferring sauce manufacturing from Belgium to Telford.

Unveiling a plaque to commemorate the opening, Mr Paterson said: "I want to congratulate Pickstock's team for bringing this sort of state-of-the-art plant to Shropshire. It is a real core project for what I am trying to achieve.

"I have four priorities – to grow the rural economy, improve the environment, and to protect the country from animal and plant diseases, and this scores pretty heavily in three of those."

The 85,000 sq ft plant is one of a handful in Europe to have every different process under the same roof, including lairage where cattle rest before slaughter, the meat processing facility, on-site cold stores and despatch, plus a boning and packing plant.

Pickstock is also considering installing an anaerobic digester on the site.

Mr Paterson added: "We have seen a drop in beef prices recently, and if we could grow exports that would help support them.

"We opened up 112 new markets last year, and have begun negotiation with China that will be a long and difficult, and these facilities are as good as any you will find in the world. You could bring any exporter here.

"Food and drink is the largest manufacturing sector we have in this country, employing 4 million people and with turnover of around £100 million."

The company was established in 2003 and based in Derbyshire before it outgrew its existing home in late 2012.

Operations began in January this year – owner Greg Pickstock said he was delighted with its early performance – it has now enjoyed its formal unveiling.

The company currently achieves turnover of between £60 to £70 million per year, but expects growth of around 30 per cent as a result of its move to purpose-build premises.

The site will also benefit some of its 6,000 suppliers, as it uses a number of farms in Shropshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire.

Mr Pickstock said: "We outgrew the last factory, as we were getting to full capacity. Had we invested in our other plant it would been a similar amount to this new investment.

"It has been easier to place jobs here than it was in Ashby, there have been more people coming up to the gates.

"This company has brought the company to a new level and it is now capable of supplying a whole range of customers from the local butcher's shop to the largest retailer with UK beef."