Finnebrogue announces £2.8m plant-based food factory upgrade

The manufacturer has installed 2,846 solar panels on the roof of its vegan food factory and is expanding cark parking and infrastructure around the site to facilitate future growth plans.

Finnebrogue said the investment would eliminate 580 tonnes of CO2 emissions and “provide further energy security” ​while offering additional infrastructure to support its expansion into the plant-based market.

Countdown to completion

The solar panels will come on stream this month (July 2023), while additional infrastructure including car parking and roadways will be finished by the end of the year.

Commenting on the announcement, Finnebrogue chief strategy officer Jago Pearson said: “As we continue on our growth trajectory in the plant-based sector and across the other categories in which we play, we also continue to invest in our people and our facilities. ​

“We are privileged to have four outstanding food production facilities in County Down, the oldest being just eight years old, but we are always seeking ways in which we can make improvements so we can make more food the best it can possibly be.​

Finnebrogue’s ‘foundation to success’

“We are particularly confident about the increasingly significant role we can play in the plant-based category in the years to come, our output having grown threefold in two years and our development teams working intensively on the agenda-setting innovation that has always been the foundations of our success.”​

Finnebrogue’s overall company revenue was forecast to surpass £200m this year, up from £188 million last year. The business’s plant-based output is up threefold since 2021, making a broad range of plant-based food formats on a private-label and co-manufacturing basis.

Earlier this month, Finnebrogue announced it had partnered with cultivated meat company Ivy Farm Technologies on a project to bring the first commercially available cultivated wagyu beef burgers to market.​​