A SMOOTHIE and juice manufacturer is ready to start building its £210m carbon-free factory in Holland.
Innocent Drinks, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola, will build its ‘blender’ factory in the Port of Rotterdam’s new Food Hub.
Once complete, the factory will create 190 jobs and produce over 400 million bottles of chilled juice a year for 17 European countries.
Chris Fielden, group supply chain director at Innocent, told the Construction Index: “Designing, building and operating a sustainable factory starts with a very dedicated and aligned team of partners with a shared vision on sustainability, targeting water, energy and waste reduction.
“Integrated Food Projects is an invaluable partner for us, as alongside engineering expertise, the team is able to provide independent consultancy on how the new factory should operate and where it should be built.
“We worked with the Integrated Food Projects team throughout the evaluation and initial building process, and their input was central in our goal of delivering a site that operated as a sustainable, environmentally friendly factory.”
After a four-year search for a new production location, the company chose Rotterdam as a location due to it being close to the port for access to ingredients,
The move means the company can reduce road miles travelled by around 25%, since most of the fruit arrives by shipping container to the Port of Rotterdam.
The blender will also use as little water as possible and reduce, reuse and recycle its waste.
By reducing millions of road miles and minimising the carbon footprint, the London-based company ‘is building further on its ambitions and role model in sustainable manufacturing.’
The factory will consolidate Innocent’s supply chain network, saving over 250 road tanker journeys a week, taking 93% of its tankers off the road.
With these and other initiatives such as reducing the use of water and reusing waste, Innocent aims to reduce CO2 even further.
