Dairy Crest's £4m move to build innovation centre at Harper Adams

Around 40 members of staff will relocate from the Cathedral City and Clover manufacturer's site at Crudgington, which is currently in the process of closing, to the university at Edgmond near Newport.

Planning permission has already been granted for the new build, and work will start immediately, but until it is complete the staff will work from the upper floor of an existing building on the campus.

Dairy Crest aims to grow its sales by 10 per cent each year with product development, and the new innovation centre is designed to help it maintain that growth.

"Innovation is at the heart of Dairy Crest's business and I see the new centre as key to delivering our business strategy over the next few years," said chief executive Mark Allen.

"We are already working closely with Harper Adams on several research projects and I am certain this will be a long-term partnership which will go from strength to strength.

"I am particularly pleased that the centre is going to be at Harper Adams University – already a centre of excellence in terms of food, farming and science education. This will also allow Dairy Crest to continue our long-standing association with Shropshire."

The planning application for the development shows the new building lying on open field land at the south of the campus.

Dairy Crest and Harper Adams agreed to work together on the project around a year ago, and since then they have continued to develop their working relationship including a project to look at animal welfare.

In addition to the lease of premises and land, the University and Dairy Crest have entered into another collaboration agreement to further strengthen their links.

Dairy Crest will work with staff and students with links to the agriculture and food sectors, and will provide work placements, staff secondments and guest speakers under the agreement.

Dr David Llewellyn, the university's vice-chancellor, said: "This new partnership comes at a time when universities and businesses are being increasingly encouraged to work together to support economic growth.

"We are therefore delighted that Dairy Crest has finalised the plans to move its research and technical development activities to our campus in this novel collaboration within the food sector.

"The fact that the initiative is based around sharing expertise in education, as well as in research, is an added bonus in that we hope it will encourage young people looking at their career options to consider the huge, and exciting, opportunities presented by the food industry.

"We look forward to working with our colleagues from Dairy Crest in this important new partnership."