Inspired Pet Nutrition (formerly known as Wagg Foods) yesterday officially opened its new 100,000 sq ft distribution centre and offices near to its existing facilities at Dalton Airfield in North Yorkshire.

The firm has invested some £7 million in building and fitting out the new automated site which currently has the capacity to store around 11,500 pallets with room to add a further 5,000 spaces if required.

Using a technique called ‘one shot loading’, full pallets are automatically loaded on to a specially commissioned truck which delivers them to the new DC where they are automatically unloaded, racked and sorted into individual SKUs ready for order picking.

Some 30 office staff will also move to the new building with production personnel taking over their current office space which will be used for meeting rooms and improved canteen facilities.

The investment is in addition to the £20million the business has spent over the past five years on automating production in its existing two mills which are also on Dalton Airfield. A further £3 million is scheduled to be spent on the mills in the next two years.

Morrison’s supermarkets CEO David Potts performed the opening ceremony along with Inspired Pet Nutrition’s Managing Director Richard Page.

Explaining the reason for the name change Mr Page told guests: “Wagg is the volume market leader and Harringtons continues to be one of the fastest growing brands in dried dog food and we will also have some exciting product launches this Summer under the Harringtons name. 

"We believe that a clearer focus on these two main brands will be achieved by having a separate identity for the overall business.

“Our aim still remains the production of the highest quality pet food products at a competitive price through constant improvement in manufacturing processes and product innovation. 

"This investment will further increase efficiency as the new site significantly boosts our stock holding capacity so longer production runs are possible. Therefore equipment downtime associated with changing over product lines is reduced along with the associated packaging waste.”

Photographed, left to right: David Potts (CEO of Morrison’s) and Richard Page (MD of Inspired Pet Nutrition) officially open the new £7 million distribution centre.