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Avara Foods to invest £4.7m at new Wednesbury factory
Avara Foods has committed around £4.7m to a new facility in Wednesbury, bringing over 150 additional jobs to the area. Work has already started to get the site ready and is expected to be operational before Christmas.
The investment includes a full refurbishment of the site, inside and out, as well as new food processing machinery. The site will be technology-led, with automated processes to reduce the number of manual and repetitive tasks.
Avara Foods supplies some of the UK’s largest supermarkets and popular restaurants, and the new facility will produce a range of poultry products to meet growing demand.
With an initial start-up complement of 50, recruitment for a diverse range of roles at Avara’s Wednesbury facility has begun, with applications welcome from all backgrounds.
Avara Foods is investing £4.7m and creating over 150 jobs at a new production facility in Wednesbury / Picture: Avara Foods
Rob Bywater, general manager at Avara, said: “This is an exciting time for Avara and I’m really pleased to confirm that we’ll have a new facility in Wednesbury. The site will be a well invested modern food manufacturing operation and increases our presence in a region where we already have a strong reputation for success. And it is our people that are the key to that success; we know that they want a fair wage, the opportunity to learn and earn more over time, and more than anything else to be genuinely valued and looked after. I am very proud that we offer this and so much more. It really is a great time to join us.”
While the national labour shortage is creating problems for some businesses, Avara is committing more resources to an area where they already operate, with sister-sites in Telford and Dudley, to meet business growth and rising demand.
Phil Davidson, Avara’s operations director, added: “We’ve been part of the community in the West Midlands for a number of years and we really value the skill, commitment and loyalty of the people here. It’s a big commitment on our part, but it makes perfect sense to double down in a part of the country where we’ve enjoyed a lot of success. I know the last 18 months have been pretty tough but we’ve worked really hard to keep the team at Avara safe and, by offering real careers, not just jobs, I hope that this is another piece of good news for the community.”