York MP Luke Charters has visited Nestle in the city at a very auspicious time.
His trip around the York chocolate factory took place on the 90th anniversary of the KitKat.
It was the first visit to the site for Mr Charters since he was elected MP for York Outer last year. Scott Coles, head of Nestlé’s Confectionery business in the UK, took him on a tour.
After learning about the research and development activities that take place in York to create new products, Mr Charters was guided on a tour of the KitKat manufacturing lines and upgraded packaging machinery.
He chatted to factory staff and learned about the investment made into its York site.
The visit came after Nestlé’s recent launch of the ‘Good for Britain, Good for the Future’ campaign to celebrate its British heritage and local pride.
The MP was shown how KitKat products are made in York using milk from family farms in Scotland, and with British wheat.
The visit concluded with a ride in an all-electric HGV, driven by Stacey Kelly, who retrained as an HGV driver through a Nestlé apprenticeship scheme, and walkaround of the recently upgraded distribution centre which supplies Nestlé products to locations across the UK.
Scott Coles, managing director for confectionery at Nestlé UK, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Mr Charters to our York campus. The visit was a great opportunity to highlight Nestlé’s commitment to excellence in manufacturing and showcase our local colleagues’ expertise across all parts of our business.”
Mr Charters said: ““Visiting Nestlé here in York was an absolute delight – this site has been a cornerstone of our city’s economy and community for generations.
“I have fond memories of the smell of KitKat filling the air when I was at Huntington School, so it’s wonderful to see how that legacy continues today.
The KitKat was invented in York in 1935 thanks to an employee suggestion to make a chocolate bar that could fit in a lunch box.
Ninety years later, the Nestlé York factory makes four million KitKat bars a day – one and a half billion a year – all made and designed by our team of chocolate experts right here in the city.
The York site also houses a 24/7, 364 days a year operations confectionery factory, a distribution centre for the north of the UK, and the Nestlé Product Technology Centre.
One of the biggest employers in York, around 2,000 people are on the site.
Nestlé lso recently invested £5.2 million into its York distribution centre, with more than £85 million invested in the Nestlé York campus in the past decade
