Greene King will invest £23m in a new food and drink depot in Middleton.
It follows a proposed £40m investment in a new brewery in Bury St Edmunds, which was announced in April.
The new investment will be part of a 15-year lease with logistics company GXO running the operations of the site. The move will look to harmonise the business supply chain processes by housing both food and drink stock that is currently being managed at three depots.
The northwest is a key location for Greene King, and the depot will deliver 240,000 cases of food,catering and cleaning equipment as well as 465 tonnes of drink to 1,000 pubs per week.
The pub company will be using the £23m investment to re-develop and refurbish an existing site at Middleton, including the introduction of enough solar panels to cover 8,000 square metres, generating a targeted 1.2m kWH per year.
The improvements to the current site are expected to take around 12 months, with the depot opening for drink deliveries from May 2025 and food from early-2026. Therefore, the lease at the current food service depot at Ocean’s Estate, Trafford Park, is being extended for 1 year to May 2026 to meet this timeline.
Matt Starbuck, managing director of brewing and group supply chain, said: “We want to make this long-term commitment to our operations in the northwest as it will play a crucial role in getting food and drink out to our hundreds of pubs and thousands of customers in the region.
“This investment will enable us to replace the existing sites which are very dated. The new site will make for a far better environment for the teams to work in, and people will absolutely be at the forefront of the design and planning process of the new site.”
Chris Hyde, managing director convenience & food services at GXO, said: “We’re proud of our12-year partnership providing expert logistics services that have supported Greene King’s growth. We’re delighted to support them as we consolidate their operations into a new state of the art facility in Middleton that will help improve productivity and progress ESG commitments.”
