Manchester Plant
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The Manchester Plant is a large food factory in
North West 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 ...
; 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 ...
, it was the largest food factory in Europe. It is devoted to manufacturing
Kellogg's Kellanova, formerly known as the Kellogg Company and commonly known as Kellogg's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, US. Kellanova produces and markets con ...
cereal and related products.


History

American
Will Keith Kellogg Will Keith Kellogg (born William Keith Kellogg; April 7, 1860 – October 6, 1951) was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, who founded the Kellogg Company, which produces a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals. He was a membe ...
(who died in October 1951) was part of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sa ...
, and a strict vegetarian. Other famous food industry families have had noted strong links to a sect of the Christian church. In 1935,
All-Bran All-Bran is a high-bran, high-fibre, wheat bran breakfast cereal manufactured by WK Kellogg Co for the North American market and Kellanova for the rest of the world. It is marketed as an aid to digestive health. History The introduction of All-B ...
was imported from Canada. During the Second World War, the site's production was only sold to the North, Scotland and the Midlands. The factory was damaged by high winds at the end of February 1949. It suffered a gas explosion in a basement on Saturday 15 July 1950. The production manager, Joseph Askew, died suddenly at home, on Poplar Road in Stretford, on 3 February 1956, aged 58. During food rationing, the parent US company would fly in parcels of food, for all the staff, in the week before Christmas, on an aircraft from Dublin, with a turkey and Christmas pudding for each employee. After rationing stopped, the company continued the tradition, for some years. By 1960, the site was making 1.25 million boxes per day. The other £14m production site in
north Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, 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 Snowdon ...
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 The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West England, North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary at Eastham, Merseyside, Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it ...
, 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. On Thursday 17 June 1937 construction started, the first factory on the new Barton Dock Estate, owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company. It would cost £250,000. The granary could store 500,000 tons of grain, with eight grain stores, 130 ft high, 30 ft wide, and built in only nine days. All of the raw materials came from the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
, with the white corn for Corn Flakes grown in South Africa. The factory was expected to open at the end of February 1938. The £500,000 five floor site opened on 24 May 1938, which was
Empire Day Commonwealth Day is the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations, held on the second Monday in March. While the date holds some official status in select Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, member states of the Commonwealth ...
, the birthday of
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
. It was opened by a woman from north
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
, from 22 Second Avenue,
Edwinstowe Edwinstowe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries. It is associated with the legends of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and to a lesser extent ...
; 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 is being r ...
. The factory was the largest cereal factory in the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
, 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. The huge illuminated ''K'' sign, was switched on on 24 November 1981, being 60 ft long. A new UK headquarters was built in the late 1980s next to
Old Trafford Cricket Ground Old Trafford is a cricket ground in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1857 as the home of Manchester Cricket Club and has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since 1864. From 2013 onwards it has been known ...
on Talbot Road, with 400 staff, costing £2m. 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 Borough of Erewash, 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 paris ...
in south-east
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
. 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, 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 aircraft, arriving back in north-west London at 6.30pm. On Sunday 5 January 2020, Channel 5 (British TV channel), Channel 5 showed ''Secrets of the Kellogg's Factory'', with food historian Polly Russell. BBC Two made an hour-long documentary on Tuesday 26 July 2016, looking at the production of Crunchy Nut, interviewing Professor of Nutrition Louise Dye and Food history, food historian Seren Evans-Charrington; the production of Cocoa Krispies, Coco Pops, made with Arborio rice; 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. ''Food Unwrapped'', with Kate Quilton of Channel 4 shown on Monday 7 September 2015 series 6 episode 2, visited the factory, to investigate how vitamins and Human iron metabolism, iron 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 (TV production company), Ricochet. 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 (CHP) unit on the site was awarded to Elyo Industrial Ltd (now called Industrial Energy Services Ltd).


See also

*Worksop Factory


References


External links


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