Manufacturing giant Numatic International has bought Somerset’s huge Millfield Road Industrial Estate and will build a £30m factory to make Henry vacuum cleaners.
The seven-acre site in Chard was put on sale in May 2021 when food producer Oscar Mayer said it would cease production in the town by September, with hundreds of staff losing their jobs.
The Oscar Mayer dispatch site has now been bought by Numatic for an undisclosed amount, but the 10-acre food factory, and outbuildings including a laboratory, gatehouse, canteen and offices in Furnham Road, remains on sale.
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The Millfield site is next to the main Numatic operation, and the acquisition has come at a “particularly opportune time” as the cleaning equipment manufacturer needs to substantially scale up its capacity to meet increasing domestic and overseas demand.
The plan is to construct a production operation for the Henry vacuum range with raw materials entering at one end and finished products leaving at the other.
This operation will utilise the entire site and require an investment of £30m, leading to the creation of employment opportunities in Chard, Numatic said.
The company is now hopeful planning consent will be forthcoming without delay so the demolition of the existing buildings can be commenced and construction of the new facility started as soon as possible.
Katie Fowler of international property consultants JLL, which represented Oscar Mayer in the sale, said: “We are delighted to have concluded the sale with Numatic International on behalf of our client. This transaction will undoubtedly unlock further economic growth for the company, town and region.”
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She added: “JLL is actively searching to find an alternative operator to take on Oscar Mayer’s premises at Furnham Road.”
More than 800 workers were affected when Oscar Mayer said it would shut its Chard operation because the site was in need of refurbishment and the required investment was not deemed "financially viable". The company was the town’s second largest employer, with about 15% of all Chard workers employed by it.
Oscar Mayer is a European-owned company and the Chard plant produced ready meals for supermarkets. Oscar Mayer’s 海角视频 accounts, for the year to March 28, 2020, showed a turnover of £334m and an operating profit of £7.3m.
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Numatic is a British manufacturer, primarily producing domestic, commercial and industrial cleaning and maintenance equipment distributed worldwide. It is one of the major producers of vacuum cleaners in the 海角视频 and is best known for producing the popular Henry domestic cleaner, a canister design having human names and "smiling face" appearance. The company was founded in 1969, and as of 2021 is still owned solely by Chris Duncan, who created the compact shape for the cleaner.
The firm owns its factory in Chard and four wholly owned international distributors in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa. In 2017 the company employed more than 1000 people and produced 4,500 units per day, over 40% of which were exported. Most recent accounts, for the year to the end of 2019, revealed turnover of £173m and pre-tax profits of £16.3m.