Growers to Benefit from Partnership

We are pleased to announce that Mr Craig Uttridge has accepted the position of Higgins Factory Site Manager at the Westwick factory of Heinz UK.

This position has been created following the confirmation of an exciting partnership between Heinz and Higgins.

The two businesses have signed an exclusive agreement whereby Higgins will be the sole potato supplier to the factory for 4 years.

The two companies will work together on improving the potato supply chain to increase efficiency, reduce costs and increase grower returns.

The first stage of this project represents a 1/2 million pound investment by Higgins at the Westwick factory to install and operate a washing and optical sorting system for all potatoes delivered to the site.

The new system will deliver significant benefits by guaranteeing in specification potatoes are always presented to the process line, but also allow slight changes to be made to the specs to maximise potato usage. Growers will also benefit through maximum crop utilisation and reduced grading requirement.

The partnership is already working on more options to further improve this potato supply chain.

Craig's new role will involve control of the Higgins staff and equipment on site, management of potato usage and liaison with Heinz staff at all levels. We are currently recruiting additional staff to work with Craig & our team in Norfolk. In the interim, please contact Shaun Langley at our Norfolk office with any queries.

David Higgins
Group Managing Director