Seabrook Crisps, owned by Japan-headquartered snacks maker Calbee, is set to invest £12m in expanding its UK plant in Bradford. The company, which was acquired by Calbee in 2018, has received planning approval for a 4,000 square-metre expansion at its northern England site. The investment is in response to rising demand in the UK market, and will lead to a 70% increase in manufacturing capacity once complete. The expansion project is expected to be finished by July of next year and will create 15 new jobs.
“This investment supports our long-term strategy and ambition for greater scale, brand growth, and increasing our market share,” said a spokesperson for Calbee. The company aims to expand its core crisp business and explore new formats and occasions while maintaining product affordability and quality.
Seabrook Crisps, which was previously owned by the private-equity arm of Lloyds Bank, offers a range of snacks including crinkle-cut crisps, straight-cut crisps, puffed snacks, and rings. Its products are vegetarian, with most being gluten-free and coeliac-accredited.
Jonathan Bye, former CEO of Seabrook Crisps, now serves as the chairman of Calbee UK. Calbee also supplies the plant-based snack brand Harvest Snaps in the UK. In addition to the Bradford facility, Calbee has another site in Deeside, Wales.
Calbee, the parent company, recently reported a 10.4% increase in sales to Y147.1bn ($978.1m) for the first half of the year. Net profit also rose by 31.8% to Y11.2bn. The company does not disclose individual country performance.
