ABN, part of AB Agri, recently invested in equipment to refurbish and reopen a feed mill in northern England.
The company brought Langwathby mill, near Penrith, back into operation after major investment, helping improve the geographical footprint of their business in the region.
“Poultry production is growing in the north of England, with our existing customers expanding their businesses, and also new entrants joining the sector,” said Kevin Sketcher, business unit director for ABN.
“To be able to better serve our customers in the north, we saw the opportunity to re-invest in Langwathby mill, a previously operational mill that was lying idle,” he says.
Sketcher said having a mill strategically placed in Northwest England will also allow ABN to free up capacity in some of the other mills across the country.
“As a result of this, we are in a position to place customers’ feed production into their closest mill, where possible, ensuring we are delivering feed as efficiently as possible.
“This has been a very gradual process for us. We started with a blank canvas, meaning we had the opportunity to invest in the latest technology and state-of-the-art equipment. As the equipment had never produced feed before, we were very diligent and careful in the initial stages of production.”
He said several different diets were extensively sampled, tested and analyzed to make sure nutritional composition was as expected. “Only after we received the results did we release the feed on-farm.
“Not all farms were moved to the new mill at the same time. Instead, this was done over a three-month period to ensure each process in the mill could cope with the increasing volume, while maintaining the quality specification we wanted, with robust quality control testing at each stage.
“The mill is currently running at the anticipated production level with scope for future growth, which means that we can react and support industry expansion.
“We are very grateful to our partner customers for their co-operation throughout the process. They have welcomed the changes and this marks a significant development in our business that we hope we can learn from, and potentially role out some of the new technology to our other existing mills,” he said.
