In October 2019, we officially opened the doors to a new jewel in our crown, a £ 20 million eco-friendly fruit packing and storage facility in Linton, near Maidstone, the biggest soft fruit pack house in the UK.
The packhouse at Driscoll’s Maidstone, features 150,000 square feet of packing and storage facility with 50,000 square feet of mezzanine floor space, which houses the business head office alongside new canteen and welfare facilities.
From here we can store, pack, and distribute around 60 million punnets of soft fruit each year to major UK retailers, food service and convenience outlets.
The building was designed with future innovation and sustainability as a key priority and with the aim of one day being a fully sustainable and carbon neutral operation.
Driscoll’s Maidstone also has one of the biggest solar energy systems of its kind, featuring 3,614 solar panels covering 6,143 square metres on the roof of the building, allowing us to save more than 215,388KG of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of planting 10,906 trees over 10 years.
Since its opening, we have launched several other environmentally related initiatives:
• 0% waste issued to landfill.
• 6200 trees and shrubs planted around the site.
• 18 charging points for electric cars
• Energy efficient refrigeration system
• Three electric plug points for standing HGV trailers
• Thousands of trees planted on site grounds and biodiversity site.
• Backing paper recycling initiative with Coveris
• Slick waste management system installed.
• Two fuel interceptors installed at each side of the site.
• Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors throughout the office and operational space
• Regular litter picking events around the packhouse.
In addition, we have worked together with the British Standard Institutions (BSI) Group and gained a ISO 14001:2015 Certification in January 2021, which is an internationally agreed standard and sets out the requirements for an effective Environmental Management System.
Please click below here to view the Driscoll’s Maidstone Packhouse ISO 14001 Certificate.
Driscoll’s Maidstone Packhouse Environmental Policies are available upon request.
