FDBusiness.com

Nestle Waters has started production at its new £35 million state-of-the-art factory at Waterswallows in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. Bottling the Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestle Pure Life brands, the new factory is one ofEurope’s most innovative and efficient bottling facilities. It is the culmination of many years of research and development and for the first time, combines the bottling facility with warehousing capability with the new lines allowing Nestle Waters UK to significantly reduce its total energy output, as well as the packaging used in its bottles.

Nestle is a big employer in the area and the local community was kept in mind when tendering for the new factory. The construction company was tasked with sourcing both procurement and labour from a tight circumference of the building site, ensuring contractors and materials would not have far to travel and more importantly adding a boost for the local community and employment. By the end of February 67% of the labour on site was from within the area and 76% of the materials had been purchased within a 50-mile radius.

The new facility has also given Nestle Waters the opportunity to promote sustainable development practices and the factory is striving to achieve an ‘excellent’ grading in its BREEAM Certification later this year. This certification takes into consideration the site’s energy and water use as well as its transport infrastructure and its ecology.

Paolo Sangiorgi, managing director of Nestle Waters UK, says: “I am delighted to see the first bottles of Buxton Natural Mineral Water and Nestle Pure Life come off the lines less than 12 months after we started building our new factory. Waterswallows has enabled us to pursue our ambition to promote sustainable development practices in both the construction and production processes operated there.”

In keeping with the local environment, the factory has been designed to harmonise with its beautiful surroundings and features classic recycled Derbyshire dry stone walls, which are used to reinstate field patterns and define site boundaries. An attractive, wave-shaped roof enhances the buildings’ visual appeal and a sustainable drainage system manages the rain water that runs off from the new site. A heat recovery system also transfers heat generated from the bottling lines to provide heat to the warehouse and offices has also been introduced which significantly reduces additional heating requirements and reduces carbon output.

The site will enable Nestle Waters to continue to decrease the amount of water used in its manufacturing and by the end of 2012 it will also be zero waste to landfill.

Start of production also saw the launch of an innovative lightweight range of bottles. These new bottles are the lightest bottled water bottles produced in the UK and have a shorter neck and a sturdy, ergonomical shape that requires less plastic and fits comfortably in the hand. Through their redesign Nestle Waters has achieved an average 25% reduction in the use of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) in their production with a 46% reduction in PET for the smaller 25cl and 33cl bottles.

Innovation in production continues with the launch of a new sports cap that includes a tamper evident seal that stays within the lid when opened. The new sports cap will be available on the Buxton Natural Mineral Water 25cl, 75cl and 1 ltr formats and the Nestle Pure Life 33cl formats.