Harrison Pitt delivers £10m egg-packing centre in Oxfordshire

Harrison Pitt Architects has helped deliver a state-of-the-art £10m egg-packing centre in Oxfordshire that is now providing free range eggs to the UK’s leading supermarkets.

The Lancaster-based practice was the lead consultant on the project for Noble Foods’ shell egg division which supplies eggs to major retailers for their own-brand products, as well as its own Happy Egg, Big & Fresh, and Eggs for Soldiers brands.

The new 82,500 sq ft facility at Standlake, which has been built by Clegg Food Projects, features specialist machinery that grades, sorts and packs the eggs before they are delivered to retailers.

Richard Parker, architect at Harrison Pitt Architects, said: “This new facility is a huge logistical operation handling millions of eggs on a weekly basis. It is allowing Noble Foods to pack and deliver even larger quantities of quality eggs in what is a competitive and highly-regulated market.

“It has been a privilege to work for such a prestigious business as Noble Foods on this national project. This is the latest in a number of projects we have completed, or are currently working on, for the food manufacturing sector and we have more in the pipeline.”

Richard Stowey, project director for Noble Foods, said: “Our Standlake facility is using the latest technology and most advanced equipment in the global egg industry. It has been designed to make energy efficiency and health and safety a priority and we believe it rivals any packing centre anywhere in Europe, if not the world.”

The packing centre is used to receive and pack Free Range eggs. It includes machines that sort and then packs eggs before they are delivered to retailers. Noble Foods is the number one supplier of fresh eggs to major retailers across the country and the provider of happy egg – the UK’s leading egg brand.

Noble Foods is the leading supplier of fresh eggs to the major retailers and each week individually grades, packs and delivers over 72 million eggs for its customers. It already has two major egg-packing centres, one in Lincolnshire and one in Fife, Scotland, serving the North of England and north of the border. Many of its eggs come from independent egg farms, in many cases, with hens and feed also supplied by Noble. Company-owned farms also complement its egg production.