A THIRSK company has invested a further £1.5m at its facilities at Dalton Airfield.

Inspired Pet Nutrition – formerly Wagg Foods – has already invested £7m in a new 100,000sq ft distribution centre, which became operational in May.

The company is the UK's largest independent producer of dry pet food and employs 130 at Dalton and a further 20 at a facility in Flint.

The new central conveying system will eventually be linked to all nine production lines. Instead of pallets having to be picked up manually at the end of each line and moved by forklift truck to store, there will just be a single collection point with automated pallet handling.

This removes the need for up to 80 forklift movements an hour around the factory and warehouse with associated safety benefits.

The factory currently produces about 40 pallet loads an hour but the new system can handle up to 75 an hour and can easily cope with the planned increase in production.

The conveying system will also work in tandem with the new distribution centre – which currently has a capacity to store 11,500 pallet loads – by using a technique called 'one shot loading'.

The operation ensures full pallets are automatically loaded on to a specially-commissioned truck which delivers them to the new centre.

George Page, operations director, said: "Previously, there was a lot of manual double handling required as pallets were collected from individual packing lines and stacked in the factory before being moved again for despatch.

"Now there is just a single collection point from where bagged goods are shunted on the Automatic Trailer Loading System straight to the new distribution centre, where they are automatically unloaded directly into an automated racking system that prepares loads for despatch."

Family-owned IPN manufactures a broad range of pet food and treats for puppies, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters. In addition to its Wagg and Harringtons brands, the company is also a major supplier of own label products to retailers.

It exports to 16 countries – particularly France, Germany and Spain – and has a turnover of £60m.