Potato supplier AKP officially opened its£3 million north-Lincolnshire headquarters this week.
Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board chairman John Godfrey opened the premises at Elsham Wolds on Wednesday.
AKP supplies big names such as Morrisons, McCain and Linroyale and has made the investment over the past three years on the site of the former KP potato storage facility it acquired in 2007.
The site includes a temperature-controlled potato storage facility and grading line, together with extensions to existing handling areas and sees the firm’s administration moved back into the area from York.
Managing director Richard Arundel said: “We wanted to show we could produce the required quality locally that supermarkets were buying in from Herefordshire, Scotland or even importing. Morrisons backed us with it and we went to Yorkshire Forward [the scrapped regional development agency] putting together a plan. We then tied the supply chain up and got the funding; that equated to £700,000. With Morrisons’ rapid growth in the retail world, the business has been propelled quickly.”
Arundel’s aim was to have more top-quality potato producers local to the site to cut down on transport costs. He said: “There is still a lot of potential, it will help the environmental footprint and this part of the world has the ability to grow some of the best potatoes in the country; that is what we are majoring on.”
AKP handles 120,000 tonnes of potatoes a year through the site, which boasts at 32,000 sq ft storage facility with the latest in environment-friendly technology such as increased insulation to reduce refrigeration and ethylene sprout-suppressant systems.
Arundel said: “The new facility will not only enable us to meet the demand of our biggest customers, but we’ve also successfully improved the quality and freshness of our potatoes by reducing transportation, handling and using the latest cold store technologies.”
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