Unilever completes £150m investment in Wirral site
GoogleUnilever has confirmed plans to invest £150m in its Port Sunlight plant where brands including Persil, Comfort, Cif and Lynx are produced.
The money will go towards creating a new advanced automated distribution centre directly connected to Port Sunlight's three factories in Wirral.
There will also be high-tech manufacturing upgrades at Port Sunlight, which is one of the region's major employers.
Unilever's UK boss Mark Woodhead said the investment represented "a landmark moment for Port Sunlight".
"The completion of investments in home care manufacturing and the opening of a new flagship distribution centre will support the growth of our business and reinforce Port Sunlight's role as a strategic hub for our UK and European operations," he said.
The new distribution centre connects directly to the factories on site and will reduce the need for lorries to move goods between the factories and distribution centres in other locations, with the aim of delivering sustainability and safety benefits.
Investment in Port Sunlight's laundry capsule factory will increase production threefold - from 660 per minute to about 2,000 - while enabling the manufacturing of smaller, more complex capsule formats.
"What that means is we're able to take an enormous amount of trucks off the road in our primary logistics," he told BBC Radio Merseyside.
"Taking around a third of those trucks off the road is going to save about 830 tonnes of carbon every year."
Madeleine McLeod, factory director for Port Sunlight Home Care, said the investment ensured the company was "future-fit" and would "boost capacity and efficiency as we roll out our latest home care innovations".
She said: "Port Sunlight represents Unilever's proud manufacturing heritage in the North-West - a heritage we are taking forward with our talented workforce, supported by the latest in high-tech automation and cutting-edge technology."
Port Sunlight is Unilever's historic home, founded in 1888 by William Lever as both a soap factory and a model village for workers.
It remains a strategically important hub and is home to advanced manufacturing and research and development.
It employs about 2,000 people.
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