New cereal plant near Kettering could create 60 jobs

Sixty jobs could be created if a new cereal processing plant near Kettering gets the go-ahead.

Farmers' grain co-operative Camgrain wants to develop their site just off the A43 at Newton, which was built just under a decade ago as a facility to store grains.

They hope to combine operations on one site with a new processing plant - reducing the need for drivers to make otherwise necessary journeys to move grains to other plants to be processed.

Plans say the development would be a "significant" financial investment in the area and could create 60 new jobs, including 10 office-based roles.

A planning statement said: "The Kettering site provides the opportunity to continue the important work that Camgrain have continued to progress in terms of grain storage whilst providing a real opportunity now to bring [it] alongside other technologies to improve the standards within the food industry.

"The important opportunity now exists to combine operations on a single site to link the input of raw material such as grains and then their processing within a new cereal processing plant, which is the subject of this application."

Camgrain currently operates four advanced processing centres across the Midlands and East Anglia, storing grains such as barley, wheat and oats for their farmer members and delivering their crops.

The proposed new cereal processing plant at their base near Kettering, on a 19.7ha site and with a 248m x 25m building, would include new conveyors, silos and ancillary structures as well as new parking spaces.

The aim of the cereal processing plant is to produce flaked cereals and cereal-based flours as ingredients for further processing into the human food chain, with the by-products being pelletised and delivered primarily into the animal feed chain.

A planning statement added: "The presence of grain on the site as an established grain storage centre will then provide the material for processing in the new plant, via a grain conveyor feed, thus totally removing the current ‘food mileage’ between the raw material and external processing operations.

"With the Kettering site combining these two processes (storage and processing) this is a significant financial investment alongside a significant increase in jobs in for the local area."

Kettering Council could make a decision on the plans by March 22 this year.