The Manchester Plant is a large food factory in North West England; during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, it was the largest food factory in Europe. It is devoted to manufacturing Kellogg's cereal and related products.

History

American

Will Keith Kellogg William Keith Kellogg (April 7, 1860 – October 6, 1951), generally referred to as W.K. Kellogg, was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which produces a wide variety of popular ...

(who died in October 1951) was part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and a strict vegetarian. Other famous food industry families have had noted strong links to a sect of the Christian church. During the Second World War, the site's production was only sold to the North, Scotland and the Midlands. The other £14m production site in

north Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...

opened on 28 April 1978; construction had started in July 1976. Around three hundred workers were made redundant in 1981, due to automation and a £5.5m investment.

Construction

The site was essentially chosen due to the proximity to the Manchester Ship Canal, built by The Kellogg Company of Great Britain; the site in Manchester was chosen by Harry McEvoy (c.1902 - 3 November 1984), the managing director. It was the largest food manufacturing factory in Europe. It was built in ten months. The £500,000 five floor site opened on 24 May 1938, opened by a woman from north

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

; her husband worked at the nearby

Thoresby Colliery Thoresby Colliery was a coal mine in north Nottinghamshire on the outskirts of Edwinstowe village. The mine, which opened in 1925, was the last working colliery in Nottinghamshire when it closed in 2015. The site has been cleared and it being re ...

. The factory was the largest cereal factory in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, covering seven acres. She had six children, and had been chosen in April 1938 from around five thousand applicants on Wednesday 27 April 1938. McEvoy would be chairman of the Cereal Foods Manufacturing Association from the start until 1967. By the late 1980s, the factory was seven times larger, and the second-largest breakfast cereal factory in the world.

Visits

Prince Philip visited on Friday 14 June 1963, where he met the same Nottinghamshire woman, now aged 70, who had opened the site in May 1938; she now lived in

Breaston Breaston ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Erewash district, in the south-east of Derbyshire and lies approximately east of the city of Derby and west of the city of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2 ...

in south-east

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. The site was now 18 acres. He had visited Leigh Boys' Grammar School in the morning, and two other Manchester factories, leaving Liverpool Airport at 6.20pm. On Wednesday 22 May 1974, the factory was visited by the Prince of Wales. Margaret Thatcher, as Prime Minister, visited on the afternoon of Friday 15 January 1982. Mrs Thatcher had been warmly greeted earlier on the same day when she visited the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

, with around three hundred students carrying black flags, and a draped coffin. She had visited the area by plane at Manchester Airport on a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

aircraft, arriving back in north-west London at 6.30pm. On Sunday 5 January 2020, Channel 5 showed ''Secrets of the Kellogg's Factory'', with food historian

Polly Russell Polly Elisabeth Russell is a food historian and curator at the British Library with responsibility for research on social science and food. She writes a food history column for the weekend magazine of the ''Financial Times'' and from 2015 has be ...

. BBC Two made an hour-long documentary on Tuesday 26 July 2016, looking at the production of

Crunchy Nut Crunchy Nut (previously known as "Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes" in the UK, and "Nut & Honey Crunch"/"Honey & Nut Corn Flakes" in the US) is a breakfast cereal made by Kellogg's with flakes of corn, honey, three types of sugar, and chopped peanuts. Th ...

, interviewing Professor of Nutrition Louise Dye and food historian Seren Evans-Charrington; the production of

Coco Pops Cocoa Krispies (also known as Choco Krispis, Choco Krispies, Coco Pops, Choco Pops depending on region) is a breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's, coming both as a boxed cereal and as a snack bar with a 'dried milk' covered bottom. It is a c ...

, made with

Arborio rice Arborio rice is an Italian short-grain rice. It is named after the town of Arborio, in the Po Valley, which is situated in the region of Piedmont in Italy. When cooked, the rounded grains are firm, creamy and chewy compared to other varieties o ...

; the addition of vitamin D with Professor of Immunology Adrian Martineau and nutritionist Angelique Panagos, and how from October to April in the UK there is not enough sunshine to make

vitamin D Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, and many other biological effects. In humans, the most important compounds in this group are vitamin D3 (c ...

. '' Food Unwrapped'', with

Kate Quilton Katie Marie Quilton (born 30 November 1983 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire) is an English television presenter and journalist. She is best known for presenting a number of Channel 4 television series, including '' Food Unwrapped'' since 2012. Career ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

shown on Monday 7 September 2015 series 6 episode 2, visited the factory, to investigate how vitamins and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

were added to Cornflakes, where a nutritionist showed Kate that Cornflakes floating on water could be attracted by a magnet; the programme was made by

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

. On Sunday 10 April 2022, Channel 4 showed an hour-long documentary about the factory, with Amalia Diamanti of Greece, of Kellogg's research and development, with series editor Anushka Roberts, made by HLP Studios.

Incidents

On Thursday 11 August 1955, 28-year-old Harold Grupwell was caught in a revolving bran cooker, and killed. On the night of Sunday 22 October 1967, the site had a large fire, with 150 firemen attending. In May 1977, 1,400 factory workers went on strike. On Sunday 9 September 1979, workers went back to work after a ten-week strike, after accepting a £8.50 a week pay rise.

Production

Corn arrives at the Dacsa Group site at Liverpool docks, and takes around one hour and twenty minutes to get to the factory. 200 tonnes of corn arrives each day, from Argentina, processing around ten tonnes of Corn Flakes each hour. 150 tonnes of Arborio rice arrives each day from Italy and Spain. It makes a million packets of cereal a day. It makes 21,000 tonnes of Coco Pops each year. For Crunchy Nut, each day it requires 10 tonnes of nuts and 3 tonnes of honey.

Distribution

The distribution centre is guided by automated guided vehicles, made by Dematic. The site is alongside the north-south A5181, at the T-junction with the B5211. Its main warehouse is further to the west, along the B5211.

Energy production

In December 2005, a contract for a 5MW

cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...

(CHP) unit on the site was awarded to Elyo Industrial Ltd (now called Industrial Energy Services Ltd).

References

External links

Prince Charles visits in May 1974
{{Commons category, Kellogg's plant, Trafford Park 1938 establishments in England Economy of Greater Manchester Food manufacturers of England Food processing industry in the United Kingdom Industrial buildings completed in 1938 Kellogg's Manufacturing plants in England Stretford