The H. J. Heinz, Wigan

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

is a

food manufacturing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...

plant owned by

H. J. Heinz Company The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 186 ...

, based in

Kitt Green Kitt Green is a suburb of Wigan in Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to ...

, Orrell,

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is one of the largest food processing plants in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the largest H. J. Heinz facility in the world. It produces over one billion cans of food annually and employs around 850 people.

Background

H. J. Heinz varieties first went on sale in

Fortnum & Mason Fortnum & Mason plc (colloquially often shortened to just Fortnum's) is an Luxury goods, upmarket department store in London, England. The main store is located at 181 Piccadilly in the St James's area of London, where it was established in 1707 ...

in 1886. After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, with a headquarters established in Hayes,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Heinz started exporting baked beans, canned spaghetti and tomato ketchup to the United Kingdom. Heinz opened its first UK production facility in

Harlesden Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, north-west London. Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towar ...

in the 1920s. By 1933 nearly all Heinz products sold in the UK were manufactured domestically. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the Harlesden facility was bombed twice. To help increase food production after the war, Heinz took over a former

munition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

s factory in 1946 at Standish near Wigan. Heinz LTD grew sixfold between 1945 and 1956, and due to this increased demand it needed a new large manufacturing plant in the UK.

Opening

Needing a new consolidated factory outside London, the site in

Northwest England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

was chosen due to its ease of access to the agricultural industry, high-quality water supply, highly skilled local workforce and good transport links. The site had good rail and road connections to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

(

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) and Europe via the

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, which allow for easy and low-cost access to both raw products and the export of manufactured processed food. The Kitt Green factory was opened on 21 May 1959 by the

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

, the Rt. Hon.

David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combi ...

. A few weeks later it was visited by

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was al ...

on 24 June 1959.

Operations

The chosen site allowed easy expansion. By the 1980s, the factory employed around 3,000 people, and during the decade was converted to high-speed automation. It had taken over the production of all UK products from Harlesden except

Heinz Tomato Ketchup Heinz Tomato Ketchup is a brand of ketchup manufactured by the H. J. Heinz Company, a division of the Kraft Heinz Company. History It was first marketed as " catsup" in 1876. In 1907, manufacturing reached 12 million bottles and it was exp ...

. After Harlesden closed in 2000, ketchup production was moved to Holland. A

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

plant with a capacity of 140 tonnes per hour was installed in 2005, one of the largest of these types of installations in the UK. The factory celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009, with a visit by HM Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

and

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

who also opened a new packaging hall. In 2013, the factory was listed by

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

as one of the world's top five manufacturing units, alongside: Reliance's Jamnagar Refinery; Volkswagen's car plant; NASA's Kennedy Space Center; POSCO's steel plant. As of 2019, the factory employs 850 people. It makes 1.5–3 million cans of

Heinz Baked Beans Heinz Baked Beans are a brand of baked beans produced by the H.J. Heinz Company. They have been sold as "Heinz Beanz" in the United Kingdom since 2008. History In 1886, Heinz Baked Beans were first sold at the Fortnum & Mason department store ...

per day and more than 1.3 billion cans of food a year, which is around annually. It is one of the largest food processing plants in Europe and the largest of Heinz's factories around the world. Investment in the site has increased since Heinz's merger with

Kraft Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

in 2015. A total of £113.6 million was invested between the merger and August 2018, including £20 million for modernising the filling and packing operations in the plant.

Future

In January 2021, Kraft Heinz began running trials moving goods by

freight trains A freight train, also called a goods train or cargo train, is a railway train that is used to carry cargo, as opposed to passengers. Freight trains are made up of one or more locomotives which provide propulsion, along with one or more railroad ...

to their Wigan distribution centre. The aim of the trials is to reduce the company's long-term

carbon footprint A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...

in comparison to road transport.

References

External links

H. J. Heinz UK
{{Heinz Food manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom

Manufacturing plants in England Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Companies based in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan