Nestlé’s new UK wafer line to boost Kit Kat production

The opening of a new GBP 5 million (more than CHF 7.5 million) wafer manufacturing line in the United Kingdom marks the end of year one of a three-year Nestlé investment programme.

The completed ‘Line 4’ will be used to make nearly 30 million high-quality wafer sheets per year, for more than a billion Kit Kat bars manufactured each year at Nestlé’s factory in York.

The state-of-the-art wafer line was officially inaugurated by Paul Grimwood, Chairman & CEO for Nestlé UK & Ireland; David Rennie, Managing Director for Nestlé Confectionery UK & Ireland; Magdi Batato, Group Technical Director; and Francois Pointet, Category Technical Manager; earlier this month.

Currently the factory produces around three million Kit Kat bars each day. Locally milled flour is used to produce 250,000 sheets of wafer, which are prepared with a chocolate based filling before being moulded into Kit Kats. Over a year this figure totals around 88 million sheets of wafer.

With the wafer manufacturing facility at the heart of the operation, the new line will continue to boost Kit Kat production.

Jas Scott de Martinville, Wafer Production Manager at the Nestlé York factory, explained that the new wafer line formed part of a three year GBP 15 million investment programme.

She said: “Using state-of-the art technology and benefiting from the latest know-how gathered through our Product Technology Centre based in York, and factories across the world, the aim of this investment is to ensure that we deliver the freshest wafer to our moulding plants.”

Ms Scott de Martinville added: “Employees in York should be really excited about this line because it’s giving us an opportunity to shine and deliver world-class wafer quality and freshness.”

The first phase of the investment project started in December 2009 with the decommissioning of one of the old batter manufacturing plants, to make room for the new installation.

Following the opening of the wafer manufacturing line, the project will continue into 2011 with a new sugar silo and installation of the new second line.

The Nestlé York site – which has more than 1,800 employees – also produces other Nestlé confectionery brands including Aero, Aero Bubbles, Yorkie, Milky Bar and Polo.