Cambrian Pet Foods invests in new production facility

Cambrian Pet Foods has invested in a new dry pet food manufacturing facility in North West England as part of its expansion plans.

The family-owned Carmarthenshire-based pet food manufacturer intends to create 20 to 30 jobs within three years at the site in Longridge, Lancashire.

Currently based at two Welsh sites in Llangadog and Pencader, the company has invested in the purchase of the facility, refurbishing and re-equipping the factory. Cambrian Pet Foods currently has 110 full-time employees spread across its two manufacturing facilities in Carmarthenshire: a dry plant at Pencader, and a cannery at Llangadog.

In addition to its Llangadog (pictured) and Pencader sites, Cambrian Pet Foods has invested in a new production facility in Lancashire / Picture: Cambrian Pet Foods

David Davies, the founder of Cambrian Pet Foods, said  “This investment at Longridge is not about ‘flags in maps’ it is just a fantastically capable facility, in a great geographical location, equipped with ‘best in class’ dry pet food extrusion and processing equipment combined with a really skilled group of people.  It also has far greater capacity than the current dry plant at Pencader and therefore removes a critical area of single point redundancy.

“The pet food and pet care market remains a point of growth and this asset will allow us to better our service and offerings to existing key customer partners as well as enabling us to win new opportunities.  This investment is meaningful to us, will support the company’s growth plans in the short to mid-term and can be seen as part of our longer-term commitment to our client partners.”

This investment outside Wales represents a first for the company in its 38-year history with initial production due to start at the new factory in October 2019.

David added: “We view this as undoubtedly being the start of an exciting new phase in the history and development of our company, and will allow us to build on the excellent performance at our two facilities in Carmarthenshire.  After a period of relative consolidation, this venture will allow us to enhance and increase our commitment to offering the most relevant premium and super-premium grade dry offerings of the highest quality and food safety standards for our key UK customer partners and those beyond.

“We are proud of the accomplishment of this important project and we’ll be actively looking to make further investments but only when and where it is prudent and sensible to do so.”