The Worksop Factory is a main food manufacturing site in

Bassetlaw District Bassetlaw is a local government district in Nottinghamshire, England. The district has four towns: Worksop, Tuxford, Harworth Bircotes and Retford. It is bounded to the north by the Metropolitan Boroughs of Doncaster and Rotherham, the east by ...

in 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 traditi ...

that makes well-known types of

instant food This is a list of instant foods. Instant foods are convenience foods which require minimal preparation, typically just adding water or milk. Some authors define "instant" food as requiring less than five minutes of preparation and "ultra-instant f ...

, such as

instant noodles Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by flash frying cooked noodles, and this is ...

, as well as well-known

gravy Gravy is a sauce often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a simple mix of salt an ...

products.

History

In July 1969, £750,000 was invested in a new plant for packet soups, to open in 1971. In 1969, the extension to the factory was began by local MP

Joe Ashton Joseph William Ashton (9 October 1933 – 30 March 2020) was a British Labour Party politician who was known for his defence of the rights of Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) against the demands of the left wing of the party to subject them ...

; it would employ 300 more people.

Industrial action

In September 1977, a nine-week strike by the

TGWU The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

cost the company £5.5m.

Production

In the mid-1980s, £2m was invested at the site. Cardboard for the tubs is provided by

Sonoco Founded in 1899, Sonoco Products Company () is a United States-based international provider of diversified consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and packaging supply chain services and the world's largest producer of co ...

Europe, in Chesterfield; the former Robinson Paperboard Packaging was bought in July 2011.

Oxo

Oxo was made at

Great Harwood Great Harwood is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, located north east of Blackburn and adjacent to the Ribble Valley. Great Harwood is the major conurbation of the 'Three Towns'; the three towns being Great Harwood, Clayton- ...

from 1939 to December 1992, when production was moved to Worksop by Unilever. Around four hundred employees had been at the Great Harwood site in Lancashire, but Unilever had tried to build a new factory in the 1980s, which was blocked by the local council. Oxo became part of Van den Bergh Foods in 1995 at Crawley.

Gravy and salt

Saxa Saxa may refer to: *Saxa (food product), a brand of salt and pepper *Saxa (musician) Saxa may refer to: *Saxa (food product) Saxa is a brand of herbs, spices, salt and pepper in the United Kingdom and Australia. Formerly a brand of Rank Hovis McD ...

salt and

Bisto Bisto is a popular and well-known brand of gravy and other food products in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Premier Foods. History The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder which rapidly became a best ...

were made at

Middlewich Middlewich is a town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, east of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,595. ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

until September 2008, which was the former

Cerebos Cerebos is a brand of salt and, more recently, of other flavourings and nutritional supplements. Ownership of Cerebos brand is divided between Kraft Heinz in Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Premier Foods in UK, K+S in Western Europe, an ...

until 1968.

Food sauces

In 1995

Ragú Ragú () is an American brand of Italian-style sauces and condiments owned, in North America, by Mizkan, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland, by Symington's, a private-label food manufacturer. The sister product to Ragú, known as Ragulett ...

sauce and

Chicken Tonight Chicken Tonight is a brand of sauce intended to be added to chicken pieces in a skillet, available in flavors such as Honey & Mustard, Country French and Thai Green Curry. History Initially launched on October 23, 1990 under Unilever's Ragú brand ...

started to be made at the site, the first in the UK; there were many TV advertisements. The process line was built by T Musk Engineering of

Swadlincote Swadlincote is a former mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, England, lying within The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire, south-east of Burton upon Trent and north-west of Ashby-de ...

, part of WT Parker.

Visits

The site was featured on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on Tuesday 14 August 2018.BBC Two August 2018
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References

{{reflist

External links

The site in June 1952
Buildings and structures completed in 1982 Buildings and structures in Nottinghamshire Dried foods Economy of Nottinghamshire Food manufacturers of England Manufacturing plants in England Rice production Worksop