Morrisons Expands Food Production Business
UK supermarket group Morrisons is to acquire its first banana ripening site in Boston, Lincolnshires o it can control better the quality of Britain’s most popular fruit. The acquisition will allow Morrisons to offer improved quality and consistency, as well as taking greater control over the bananas’ maturity.
Customers tastes vary considerably with some preferring to buy their bananas with a tinge of green in order to ripen them at home, while others want more yellow, mature bananas that are sweeter and can be eaten straight away. Controlling the process will allow Morrisons to ripen the fruit slower, meaning it is sweeter and lasts longer in the home.
Morrisons will continue its tradition of working closely with growers by sourcing a larger number of its bananas directly from dedicated growers. These green, or unripened, bananas will now be ripened at the in house facility rather than via a third party.
Bananas are one of the top-selling items at supermarkets in the UK and the move to acquire the facility from Del Monte will give Morrisons a direct, secure supply, achieve a cost saving and the ability to improve the consistency of the quality of its bananas in store.
The acquisition is a joint venture with Global Pacific, a well established trading partner of Morrisons, whose expertise in exotic fruits will ensure the operation is a success. The 58,000 sq ft factory is nine years old and was operated by Del Monte until November 2011, when it ceased operation.
The opening of the former Del Monte site in Boston will create up to 80 new jobs in the area, when the site becomes operational in the autumn. Global Pacific will run the site on behalf of Morrisons.
Morrisons is the only supermarket to own manufacturing sites including abattoirs, bakeries, produce packing, a fish factory and a flower factory – where almost a quarter of the food it sells is produced.
The acquisition of this banana facility is the sixth addition to Morrisons’ manufacturing business since 2010, following on from meat factories in Deeside and Winsford, a produce site in Worsley, FlowerWorld in Derby and the Grimsby fish factory.
