Indian Delegation Finalizes £25m Dairy Processing Hub in West Bromwich

A delegation from India, including engineers and dairy executives, visited West Bromwich to finalize the installation of a new dairy processing facility worth £25 million. The facility, operated by Freshways, is located in the Park Rose Industrial Estate and will soon begin processing operations.

The state-of-the-art hub is expected to handle 500 million litres of fresh British milk annually at full capacity. The investment aims to create one of the most modern and efficient dairy processing plants in the UK, employing over 200 people initially, with potential for further job creation as operations expand.

Freshways, a family business founded in 1991, sourced specialized dairy processing equipment from India, marking one of the first major deals following the Free Trade Agreement between the UK and India. The equipment, manufactured by IDMC in Gujarat, includes over 200 pieces, such as five stainless steel silos each capable of holding 125,000 litres of milk.

The delegation was led by Dr. Meenesh Shah, chairman of the National Dairy Development Board of India, and Rajkumar Malik, managing director of IDMC. Both expressed optimism about the partnership, with Malik stating, "It's such a privilege to see the results of many months of hard work."

Bali Nijjar, managing director of Freshways, emphasized the significance of the project: "It's a huge project with teams working round the clock to get it ready. I'm delighted to welcome our Indian business partners to see our delicious fresh British milk start to flow."

Freshways operates a network of 15 distribution centers and supplies more than 15,000 retail and food service customers, including multinational brands. The company also runs Milk & More, the UK's largest doorstep milk delivery service, with over 250,000 customers nationwide.