New England Seafood Processing Plant, Chessington, Surrey, United Kingdom

In April 2006 the Governor of Alaska, Frank H. Murkowski, officially opened the New England Seafood processing plant in Surrey as part of his UK tour to promote Alaskan seafood.

New England Seafood is a premium fish importer and processor and has an annual turnover of £40m. The new 30,000ft² plant cost £3m to construct and outfit and will employ 140 workers.

The plant is situated in Cox Lane Industrial Estate in Chessington, Surrey. It was located here because the company is a major importer of tuna from the Maldives, salmon from Alaska and a range of other species from overseas and the site is within easy reach of Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

The logistics of the plant then can ensure a minimum delay in the fish being processed and dispatched to customers, including Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.

The New England Seafood site at Cox Lane is believed to be one of few fish processing factories to have been awarded the highest 'A' level accreditation by EFSIS (European Food Service Inspection Service), a global inspection and certification company recognised by the majority of retailers.

PROCESSING PLANT CONSTRUCTION

The plant was designed by FJB Systems, a major architect of food manufacturing and processing plants. FJB Systems are a specialist provider of design and consultancy services solely for the food industry and were also able to provide project management services for the plant.

The company were contracted in 2004 to convert warehouse premises into a state-of-the-art fish processing plant and replace an older processing plant. The premises required a full refurbishment and fit out to bring it up to the required standards of hygiene regulations.

The existing warehouse had 2000m² of floor space and the new plant required in excess of 3,000m². To achieve this a mezzanine floor was installed across the entire span of the building.

The mezzanine floor was designed to hold the weight of heavy equipment such as refrigeration evaporators, processing equipment and pipe work for services totally independent of the original building (loads of up to 5.0kN/m²).

The general wall and ceiling construction of the plant used PIR cored insulation sandwich panels with a white stelvetite food-safe finish. Floors were finished with a polyurethane coating and were sloped to drains to prevent any water collection.

FISH PROCESSING EQUIPMENT CONTRACTORS

Cooltherm were responsible for the installation of a state-of-the-art refrigeration system at the plant that is capable of cooling and freezing a wide range of processed fish products.

The refrigeration system installed at the plant is a central R404A DX system which uses glycol as a secondary refrigerant. This allowed a low charge of refrigerant to be used lowering the possibility of leaks and cutting down on maintenance.

A range of specialist gas services were installed (CO2, N2, O2) for the modified atmosphere system in the packaging area and also the heat sealing machines.

Sealing machines were supplied by Sealpack and Technovac (vacuum technology) and were installed by New England's in-house engineers and also the company engineers. Avery Denisson supplied some of the labelling equipment.

FISH SUPPLIES AND CUSTOMERS

The plant will produce a wide range of fresh and frozen premium fish products for the UK and European markets.

The New England Seafood customer base includes many of the leading companies in the retail, food service and wholesale sectors in the UK and Europe (Waitrose and Marks and Spencer).

The processed species (raw material for the plant) are sourced from suppliers in over 40 countries including the Maldives, Ecuador, Alaska – USA and Indonesia.

FUTURE PLANS

The company has a track record of sustained growth with sales increasing by more than 30% annually for the past 13 years. The growth is projected to continue but it is likely that the current site can accommodate increased production levels.

The facility has been constructed so that it can accommodate demand for the next five to ten years before expansion is required. The number of employees will increase as the demand for the products develop.

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