Lancashire cheese making business faces challenging recovery following devastating fire
When a huge fire destroyed an unsprinklered cheese packing facility near Preston, the impact on the business and other companies that depend on its products was significant and had far reaching consequences. Described as ‘heart wrenching’ by its owner, the fire is another harsh lesson in overcoming adversity and poses questions as to why key resilience measures like sprinkler systems are not common to mitigate such events?
One of several food factory fires in recent years, the devastating blaze at the Butlers Farmhouse Cheese facility in Longridge last November required 60 firefighters and 10 appliances to bring under control. Whilst the company’s dairy was not impacted due to being on a separate site, its offices, packing facility and warehouse was destroyed in the blaze. Demolition of the 3,500m2 building started the following week with the expectation it would be completed before the New Year.
The fire dealt a major blow to the cheese producing business which has a turnover of £18.5 million, resulting in the loss of hundreds of tonnes of cheese stock, packaging and special holiday products bound for UK supermarkets before the busy festive season. The company is facing the monumental task of entirely rebuilding its burnt-out facility, replacing lost stock, and procuring new equipment - a huge capital expense. The cancelled Christmas orders also represented millions in lost revenue. When production halted, the company had to quickly restore capacity at its nearby dairy facility to provide soft cheese to the market to avoid further losses.
Matthew Hall, the fourth generation owner, said the fire has cost the business ‘millions’ and described the cash drain as ‘hideous’. He has said the company has had to use its own funds to essentially ‘start back from zero’ and get back on track after the devastating blaze. They have faced the challenge of a product that also needs time to mature meaning securing a new temporary warehouse. The beginning of February saw a return of its products in new packaging to store shelves. The recovery will continue.
The massive fire illustrates how a fire can lead to catastrophic loss for food businesses and huge disruption. As was so sadly demonstrated by the Butlers blaze, it was built over generations, destroyed in hours. It is a grim fact, sadly, but in the worst-case scenario the effect of a fire is the closure of the business. This is not uncommon. It can prove impossible for small businesses and some medium-sized ones to recover from the effect of a blaze; and evidence shows larger businesses often choose to consolidate operations in other sites.
This was clearly seen following the fire in February 2020 within the Speedibake bakery in Wakefield. Associated British Foods the ultimate owners decided that the costs of rebuilding the bakery were too high. They decided against rebuilding and invested in other operations within the group. Both productivity and jobs are impacted in these cases.
There may be an assumption that food industry buildings contain limited combustible materials and thus pose little fire risk. However, the growing number of major food factory blazes in the UK and Europe demonstrates this is far from the case. In fact the number of primary fires in industrial premises recorded as food and drink processing facilities averaged 100 per year in England over the five year period from 2017/18 to 2021/221.
For Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses, the outcome could have been so different. Businesses that have implemented sprinkler systems often experience only minor disruptions and can quickly resume operations within hours. Conversely, those without such systems may encounter five-to-six times more damage and endure longer periods of interruption.
1 Primary fires in industrial premises, 2017-18 to 2021-22 – Home Office November 2022
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