Category: Operations
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OAL has secured £5m to scale food factory robotics. The Innovate UK loan will support fenceless systems designed for space-constrained production lines, repetitive handling tasks, and labour-challenged food manufacturing sites.
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Danone is ending its long-running Lifeway Foods shareholding. The sale closes a strained ownership chapter while fermented dairy, protein, and functional nutrition continue to shape investment across the category.
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Food-sector leaders are calling for a national food resilience plan. The proposal links climate adaptation with farming, water, cooling, cold chain infrastructure, logistics, and manufacturing continuity.
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Rodda’s is commissioning a dedicated cottage cheese facility in Cornwall. The £6m investment will add specialist equipment, automation, and capacity for 4,000 tonnes a year at the Scorrier dairy site.
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Valio plans to transfer Oulu production across three Finnish plants. The proposed move would concentrate dairy, ice cream, and plant-based production in Riihimäki, Jyväskylä, and Joensuu, with Oulu production potentially closing by mid-2028.
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Sanitation technology is moving beyond chemical-intensive cleaning regimes at scale. Element Six and Oxi-Tech are partnering to accelerate synthetic-diamond-enabled disinfection for dairy, food production, and other industrial users.
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Compostable packaging needs clearer infrastructure and policy support. The US Plastics Pact is calling for harmonised standards, labelling, certification, and investment to scale compostable systems responsibly.
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Allergen control remains a live manufacturing risk. Filippo Berio UK has recalled Hot Chilli Pesto after fish was not declared on the product label.
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Leadership change has landed at a major UK manufacturer. Princes Group has started a formal CEO succession process after Simon Harrison confirmed he will step down at the end of June.
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ReposiTrak has added more snack suppliers to its traceability network. The expansion extends supplier-to-distribution centre-to-store data exchange across nuts, olives, trail mixes, dried fruit snacks, and other products as traceability becomes a routine operating requirement.