A FAMILY-OWNED pet food maker is pushing on with job plans after a £1.5m factory investment.

Inspired Pet Nutrition has fitted a conveyor system to improve deliveries.

Bosses say the move will help take the business’ workload from 40 pallets an hour to around 75.

They added the system offers potential to recruit up to 50 workers in the coming years, reiterating a vow made to The Northern Echo earlier this year.

The investment comes just weeks after the company, formerly known as Wagg Foods and based at Dalton Airfield, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, opened a £7m distribution hub.

The 100,000sq ft site can house at least 11,500 pallets, which officials say allows for faster order processing.

George Page, operations director, said the conveyor will be linked to the firm’s nine production lines and cut the need for forklift movements as it will direct deliveries to one collection point.

He said: “Previously there was a lot of manual double handling as pallets were collected from individual packing lines and stacked in the factory before being moved again for despatch.

“Now there is just a single collection point from where bagged goods are shunted straight to the distribution centre.

“They are then automatically unloaded directly into a racking system that prepares loads for despatch.”

The business is the UK’s largest independent dry pet food maker, supplying meals and treats for dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters under the Wagg and Harringtons brands.

Tom Page, sales and marketing director, previously told The Northern Echo its £7m warehouse expansion would provide a stronger platform to grow and reiterated its plans to deliver jobs.

He added: “This allows us 100 per cent accuracy on what we are doing.

“We could have continued thinking we can do things hand-tomouth, but we thought ‘no, we are going to do things properly.’

“We can also fit more people in if we need them too; over the next three to five years I would be surprised if this place doesn’t employ 30 to 50 more people.

“We really want to do well and it’s good to do something in this area.”

The company began in 1923 as Page Feeds to supply the farming community and previously spent £20m on its Dalton mills.

It now makes Wagg and Harringtons dog food, marketing the latter as an affordable premium brand, and is gaining an increased foothold in the cat market with its Purr-branded biscuits.

It also has a smaller base in Flintshire, Wales, which complements Dalton by making pet treats, with its full range sold across 16 countries, including France, Germany and Spain.

Tom Page added: “Being a family business, we can make quick decision if we need to; we know what we are doing and customers know they are going to get a decision.

“Now, being Inspired Pet Nutrition, we are not just known as Wagg; we have a number of different brands and can go in different directions.”