Nestlé Tutbury is a large coffee factory in Derbyshire. It is the longest running Nestlé factory in the world, outside of Switzerland.
Nestlé is the world's largest food and drink company. The site is not actually in Tutbury, which is Staffordshire, but Hatton, Derbyshire just across the railway line that separates the two counties.
History Under a former company, the first Nestlé factory in the UK opened on New Road in Aylesbury in September 1870, which made condensed milk; with another at Middlewich in Cheshire in 1873. The company also had two sites in Switzerland, and another at Lindau in Bavaria in Germany. The Aylesbury Vale was a known dairy region. In Wiltshire, Nestlé opened another creamery in Chippenham in 1877, and Staverton Mill in 1897. All of these creameries were built directly next to railway lines. The Aylesbury site closed around 2002, largely making packet soups under the Maggi name.Bucks Advertiser Friday 15 July 1988, page 13Bucks Herald Thursday 8 March 1990, page 3
Tutbury was built in 1901 after the site in Staverton. It took the Nestlé name in 1905. It was built in Repton Rural District. It was the fourth Nestlé factory in the UK. Edouard Dommen, a Swiss mechanical engineer, founded the site.IMechE archiveNestlé history He retired in 1936 and returned to Switzerland.Derby Evening Telegraph Tuesday 17 March 1936, page 8
It made powdered milk during World War II.
New buildings The new buildings opened on 9 June 1959. Ovens were made by Probat in Emmerich am Rhein, on the Dutch border, on the western edge of Germany.
In 1965 residents sent a petition to Repton Rural District Council, complaining about the aroma of roasting coffee.Derby Evening Telegraph Friday 2 April 1965, page 24
In 1980 due to a slump in summer sales, workers were put on a three day week.Burton Mail Thursday 14 August 1980, page 1
In the early 1980s, the residents of Hatton were displeased at the noise from the factory. Steam expulsions happened every 20 minutes, throughout the night.Derby Evening Telegraph Wednesday 31 March 1982, page 3
Nestle updated the factory in 1990, with a £5.5m investment, replacing the outdated machinery, to open in 1991.Derby Evening Telegraph Monday 1 January 1990, page 4 The £7m new roaster plant opened in early 1993, with a £7m extractor plant being built.Burton Mail Tuesday 20 April 1993, page 15
New units John Sisk and Sons, with contractor O’Brien Contractors built a £360 million plant over 61 weeks to make a 30-acre site.Factory extension The new Gusto plant would open in late 2014, cost and £110m.Gusto plant The architect was Darnton EGS, the structural engineer was WSP. It was designed in Navisworks and Autodesk Revit, with 4Projects project planning software.Construction software DB3 was an architect.DB3 PCS were the structural engineers,PCS Consulting and PCS of Derbyshire installed 325 WiFi nodes.WiFi StudioDH was another architect.StudioDH
In 2015 a new biomass energy centre opened.Biomass
Employees Nestlé moved its regional office staff from West Bridgford to the Tutbury factory in October 1976.Burton Observer and Chronicle Thursday 26 August 1976 page 1
On Friday 12 September 1980 at 4.25pm, 30 year old worker Noel Dolan, of Bournville, fell 30ft to his death, when demolishing a boiler.Burton Mail Saturday 13 September 1980, page 1
The local Tutbury fire station, of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, has staff from the factory.Burton Mail Monday 23 August 1993, page 7Tutbury fire station
Coffee production In the 1970s Nestlé had around 50% of the UK coffee production.Times Tuesday 18 August 1970, page 15 Nestlé introduced instant coffee to the UK in 1939.Times Saturday 9 March 1991, page 28 Until the late 1980s, most instant coffee in the UK was made with Robusta coffee, and the spray drying process.Times Monday 11 December 2000, page 25
In 1984 it was making 44% of the coffee drank in the UK, and made Nesquik.Burton Mail Saturday 9 June 1984, page 6 In 1994 it produced enough for around 45 billion cups of coffee.Burton Mail Saturday 3 June 1995, page 3 In 2000, Nestlé had a 56% share of the UK's £650m coffee production.
Nestlé España have Nestlé's largest European coffee factory in Girona (Gerona) in the east of Spain, near the French border.
All of Nestlé's UK and Ireland coffee production was moved to the site in 2014, increasing 400 jobs.
Visits Prime Minister David Cameron visited the factory on Thursday 24 November 2011,Prime Minister visit November 2011 when the site was given £110m of investment.Times Thursday 24 November 2011, page 65 The site was featured on an hour-long BBC Two documentary about coffee production on Tuesday 17 July 2018.BBC Two July 2018
Structure The site has around 1000 employees.
Site production It makes around 175,000 jars of coffee a day.Production It makes around 35,000 tonnes of coffee a year for the UK and Ireland.
See also
Gold Blend couple List of countries by coffee production Nestlé Dalton, since 1992 has made packets of coffee mixes, and Coffee Mate, on the B5299 south of Carlisle; the factory opened in 1962 Jacobs Douwe Egberts factory in Banbury, since 2015 owned by JDE Peet's, made Kenco until around 2023 Chirk Factory in Chirk in north Wales, opened in 1969 by Cadbury-Schweppes, which first made Cadbury drinking chocolate, and does today, and Knighton Factory in Knighton, Stafford, west Staffordshire, another former Cadbury factory, which made Bournvita
References
External links Nestlé Tutbury Secret Derbyshire May 2025