Finnebrogue — a Northern Ireland-based producer of both conventional and plant-based meat products — has announced that it is upgrading its plant-based facility to accommodate further growth within the category.
In total, the company is planning to invest £2.8 million into the three-year-old facility. 2,846 solar panels, which will come on stream this month, have already been installed on the roof to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy security. Car parking and infrastructure at the site are also currently being expanded, with this work expected to be complete by the end of the year. Overall, the new investment is expected to cut carbon emissions by 580t while providing more room for growth.
Finnebrogue’s plant-based output is reportedly up threefold since 2021, with further expansion expected. The company produces a wide range of plant-based products on a private label and co-manufacturing basis.
“Increasingly significant role”
Finnebrogue first reported in 2020 that it planned to open a £25 million, 200,000-square-foot plant-based facility in County Down by the end of the year. At around the same time, the company filed trademark applications for several plant-based brands.
Recently, Finnebrogue announced what was claimed to be a “world-first” partnership with UK cultivated meat producer Ivy Farm. The companies plan to develop and sell cultivated wagyu beef burgers in the UK, though they will first need to gain regulatory approval.
“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,” said Finnebrogue’s chief strategy officer Jago Pearson. “Our latest investment in our industry-leading plant-based facility will reduce our carbon emissions, deliver additional energy security and provide us with additional room to grow. 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.”
