Food brand Mr Whippy has chosen Sheffield to house its new £15m manufacturing facility as it looks to launch a new sweet treat to the market next year.
The heritage brand is to introduce doughnuts into its portfolio, which already offers cupcakes, and expects to produce more than 104m of them annually in the Steel City from 2026.
The product will be made, and distributed, from a 23,355 sq ft unit at Woodhouse Link on Innovation Way in Sheffield after company director Michael Corrado Jackson agreed a new lease.
The unit, currently being fitted out for specialist food production, has been marketed by Knight Frank and CPP on behalf of investment manager ESR, and will create more than 50 new jobs on the established industrial estate in South East Sheffield.
Michael Corrado Jackson, company director at Mr Whippy, said: “This major investment is a crucial next step for the brand and its product expansion, and this site perfectly fitted our needs both on location, and for operational purposes being a modern, detached unit. We will be able to satisfy the requirements for specialist food production, automation processes, and then easy distribution of the product.
“The unit will be the manufacturing hub for the doughnut production, which will be fully launched next year and available from retailers.”
Rebecca Schofield at Knight Frank said: “This is a fantastic example of inward investment in the region to produce a brand-new facility and associated jobs in Sheffield, as part of an ambitious business expansion. The modern unit leant itself to becoming a state of the art food production facility and the location for distribution of the product is unparalleled.”