ROQUETTE ‘SUPER’ SILO TAKES ITS PLACE AS PART OF £15 MILLION INVESTMENT

Phil Black - PII Editor 16/04/2012

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Roquette, one of the leading companies in the starch industry, which manufactures a wide range of starch products for use in hundreds of applications from the food sector to the pharmaceutical industry and animal feed business has taken delivery of a ‘Super Silo’ to complete a £15 million investment programme.

The silo, which weighs twice as much as the Big Ben bell and is the size of two double decker buses, recently made its way from the Port of Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire to Corby in Northamptonshire to take up its position as the company’s largest silo at its Corby site.

The silo, which dwarfed many of the buildings along its route, was transported on a low loader with a police escort. Whilst the low loader was required for part of the specialist journey so that it could pass under power lines, when it reached Lincolnshire the silo had to be lifted onto another shorter, higher trailer, so that it could make a tight turn in the road on route. It is so large that special permissions had to be obtained to remove and then replace some of the street signs along the route so that it could pass through narrow streets.

The arrival of the silo marked the culmination of a £15 million investment that the company is making in its manufacturing plant and processes. The Managing Director of Roquette UK Ltd, Chris Scarrott commented: “The purchase of this silo, which itself was part of an order worth half a million pounds, is just one element of an ongoing, long-term investment programme to ensure that the company remains at the forefront of the starch industry. The new Silo will help to streamline the wheat processing operation, increasing efficiency and throughput. It will bring major onsite logistics improvements which in turn will benefit the environment.”

Super Silo Facts

· The silo is 20 metres long and 6 metres in diameter

· It weighs 30 tonnes – twice as much as the Big Ben bell

· 2 double decker buses or 15 Mini Coopers could fit inside

· It could hold around 30,000 tennis balls

· It will hold 250 tonnes of Wheatfeed (bran) pellets, five times more than the silo which is currently being used in this process

Roquette Background
Roquette is a French family owned company which has made a significant investment in the Corby, UK site. It employs 150 people in Corby and more than 6,600 people worldwide.

Issued on behalf of Roquette UK by Insignia Communications. For further information contact Monika Bogdanowicz on monikabogdanowicz@insigniacomms.com or call Monika on 07857 353480 or Jonathan Hemus on 0786 832 9102.