Driscoll’s opens cutting-edge new UK headquarters

Driscoll’s has taken its UK operations to the next level with the opening of a cutting-edge new headquarters in Kent that combines cutting-edge R&D, production and packing on the same site.

The renovated facility in Linton, near Maidstone, sits alongside California and Mexico as one of Driscoll’s three strategic sites globally. According to company, the site is Europe’s largest dedicated berry development facility and “the first of its kind in the region to provide a fully traceable journey from seedling to packhouse, all in one location”.

The company’s global R&D head Scott Komar was in Kent in early May with European managing director Wyard Stomp to open the revamped six-hectare site.

It will serve as Driscoll’s UK headquarters, but the company stressed that it is much more than just a refurbished office. “This future-fit site is a vibrant new hub for innovation, flavour, and collaboration, bringing our R&D, Brand, and Category teams together under one roof,” Driscoll’s said.

The site features labs and collaborative workspaces, as well as the nearby Rankins Ranch research farm.

The packhouse, which came with the takeover of Berry Gardens in 2022, is scalable for future growth. It will handle Driscoll’s branded, as well as private-label, berries.

“We’re thrilled,” Komar told FPJ at the official opening. “These strategic sites do all the most innovative research into berries at Driscoll’s and feed into our 36 other sites around the world.”

Driscoll’s says its investment at Linton, where all its British operations are now centralised, is a huge vote of confidence in the UK.

“It’s really going to drive innovation for us going forward,” said Stomp, “and it’s very exciting now to be so close to our customers here in the UK.”

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