NESTLE recently hosted a factory tour of their Fawdon site for North East Chamber of Commerce members. Kay Wilson was on the visit and heard at first-hand about the factory’s proud history and ambitious plans for the future.

IT IS many people’s dream to visit a real-life Willy Wonka chocolate kingdom and a Nestlé factory tucked away beside a housing estate in Fawdon, Newcastle brings the whole fantasy to life.

This site, which has produced famous sweet brands since it started to make fruit pastilles in 1957, is spread over 26 acres and manufactures some of the country’s most famous and much-loved biscuits and sweets including Blue Riband, Rolos, Munchies, Toffee Crisp and Rowntree’s Fruit Gums.

The operation has grown organically and the original factory has been extended several times over to the point it now fills the site. To cope with the extensions and extra production space needed, the plant is so large there is even an internal road around the production facility.

Nestlé UK’s operations in the region, which includes York as well as Newcastle, are part of a global company with 440 factories worldwide, employing 339,000 people and producing products consumed to the tune of 1 billion every day.

Chris Goodall, the site manager said: “This site has a really proud history dating back to the production of jelly and sweets in the early days and then moving on to our first chocolate bar when we began making mint cracknel in 1971 and then toffee crisp in 1980. We were so successful in the group we diversified so we could produce other household brands like Matchmakers and Drifters, although the original Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles are still our biggest brand.”

The production process is a finely tuned mixture of high speed machinery and infinite patience. Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles, for example, have a manufacturing cycle of eight days. This time is necessary to allow the exact interaction of the ingredients and create the flavour and texture for which the sweets are renowned.

At the other end of the production scale is the toffee crisp. On this production line the chocolate bars speed along at 720 bars a minute, with the 24/7 shift pattern, this equates to a million of these products alone made every day.

Making these brands is a team of over 650 who work for Nestlé UK in Newcastle, supported by 120 agency staff. Chris Goodall explained the factory has a close-knit workforce despite being part of a vast global operation. He explains this positive atmosphere is partly due to the long service records of many employees. There are 55 people who have 30 years service each and a good number not far behind as well.

While Chris Goodall sees this service longevity as a blessing and an important part of the strong team spirit in the plant, he is also very aware of the need to develop the next generation. The graph with employees age and service is the pyramid you would expect but the recruitment of younger team members is a priority.

An integral part of the site innovations is the company’s sustainability commitment, and at the core of this, is a desire to be totally trusted by the consumer. The Fawdon plant is the Nestlé UK lighthouse for its work on sustainability.

As well as looking to the future, the day to day logistics statistics clearly show the size of will needed to implement ‘green’ changes. Over 40,000 tonnes of products are made each year at the factory however there is a site-wide campaign called ‘drive to zero’ in terms of all elements of production and waste products.

The sustainability policy is based around six pillars where the Nestlé UK team believe they can make the most difference. They are energy, water, biodiversity, value chain, community and people and waste.

In terms of energy the plant has the largest solar panel installation in the region which has generated £65k in savings. The Nestlé drive for low carbon and energy efficient sites have also made the team passionate advocates of electric cars and have 10 free charging points around the site for staff.

As part of the sustainable strategy and to continually improve their effectiveness and reduce the consumption of raw materials the company has also drawn suggestions for savings from its workforce. The appetite for change for the better has resulted in 250 projects being nominated with a potential cost saving of £10m.

Chris Goodall said; “Some of the changes may seem on the face of it quite small but the impact, spread across all our divisions is huge. One of the new sustainable ideas we now implement is in our mould washing department. As you can imagine our moulds need to pristine before every batch of product is produced and it used a substantial amount of water to achieve this. We now reuse the water used in the initial cleaning so the washing process is still at a high standard but uses 71 per cent less than previously. There have also been new processes introduced where we use dry clean methods and foam drain cleaning so that has reduced our water consumption even further.”

The Nestlé team at Fawdon are also very proud of their tradition of creating green spaces on the site, despite its urban environment. Chris Goodall said: “The factory had a landscaped garden right from its inception which was extremely unusual at the time when it was built in the 1950s. We have continued to exploit the gardens and created a butterfly meadow recently to play our part in enhancing the environment.”

The quest to create a sustainable plant continues with the water treatment that has been designed ensuring what waste goes into the system is as clean as possible. Nestlé introduced an anaerobic digestion plant in 2014 which uses natural biological processes to break down waste by micro-organisms, to help reduce the cost and impact of effluent. The benefits include a biogas which is then used to help provide power to the factory.

Despite its urban location away from rivers the plant has seen the impact of climate change at first hand with severe flooding during the torrential storms of 2012. This has also lead to work to improve the water systems around the site to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Food wastage is in the forefront of every produce manufacturers’ mind and Nestlé’s is working closely with its workforce to reduce waste everywhere on site including the staff canteen.

For the future Chris Goodall said: “There is a firm awareness of the need to be sustainable and a responsible business. We want to be at the forefront of innovations which will not only improve our company but share many our new technologies for societies wider benefit as well.

It is our ambition as a global business to cut the amount of energy resources needed to provide food and drink by one fifth in 10 years. As an organisation Nestlé’s celebrates its 150th anniversary this year and we look ahead to the future where our products can be enjoyed not just in the north east but all around the world. Our factory vision is to be trusted by Consumers to make great sweets with Pride, Passion and Care and our fantastic team here strive to do this every day. ”

James Ramsbotham, Chief Executive, NECC, was on the tour and said: “This factory is an exemplar of how to marry a proud history with innovative business thinking. During our tour we saw at first hand Nestlé’s determination to be the very best and create a truly sustainable company. I was also delighted school pupils were able to join us and find out about manufacturing and the types of careers available. ”