Nationwide Produce has nearly doubled the size of its Anglia Grower Partnership (AGP) onion packhouse in Long Sutton to keep pace with increasing production and higher demand.
The £5.5 million packhouse expansion will see the site grow from 40,000 to 75,000 sq ft, alongside better welfare facilities and a major investment in machinery and robotics.
Construction is ongoing and due to be completed by June 2025. In the meantime, the AGP packhouse is operating as normal and won’t stop but rather slowly migrate over.
AGP, part of the Nationwide Produce Group, is a dedicated storage, grading and packing facility specialising in onions.
Nationwide chairman Tim O’Malley confirmed that the business, formerly a joint venture with QV Foods, is now 100 per cent owned by Nationwide Produce and will be rebranded as Nationwide Produce later in 2025.
The onion business works in close partnership with Richmond Farms, the farming arm of the Nationwide Produce Group.
Richmond Farms grows around 850 acres of onions itself and is part of a grower group that produces 52,000 tonnes of onions a year. Each week, AGP grades around 1,200 tonnes of raw material, producing 650,000 retail packs.
The upgraded facility has five production lines (up from three) and will allow Nationwide to increase supply to its current customers.
Nationwide’s group director David Noton says the investment gives the business room to continue expanding because the facility was “at the upper level of capacity” before the upgrade.
While AGP supplies a range of retail, wholesale, foodservice, and processing customers, Noton says growth in demand is coming from the retail sector and the expanding internal needs of the Evesham branch of the business.
He points to supermarkets’ push for more English onions – to support domestic producers and reduce the length of the import window.
Alongside these investments in the packhouse, Richmond Farms will this spring begin using camera-guided sprayers to target weeds and reduce chemical usage.
The investment coincides with Nationwide’s 50th anniversary, during which time the family-run and family-owned business has increased turnover to £186.3m (2023/24).
The business now employs over 300 staff across its sites in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. It serves more than 1,000 customers throughout Europe.
