Soft drinks firm Radnor Hills acquires Highland Spring’s Swansea production site

Wales’s leading soft drinks company Radnor Hills has acquired a new production site in Swansea as part of ambitious expansion plans. The firm has bought the site in Blaen Twyni from Scottish bottled water supplier Highland Spring Group which it said will safeguard jobs.

The deal also includes a 40-acre water source in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed.

The company said a key business priority had been to find an expansion opportunity in Wales that mirrored its other manufacturing headquarters in Knighton, Powys. The Swansea site has experience supplying major supermarkets with still, sparkling and flavoured water products for several years.

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Founder and managing director of Radnor Hills William Watkins said the deal represents an “important milestone” in the company’s growth and will allow it to keep up with growing demand. He said: “The Blaen Twyni site presented us with the ideal opportunity to expand our capacity with a plentiful source of pure natural Welsh spring water, which complements the supply of pure water we already have at our source in Heartsease.

“We’re excited to welcome the highly-skilled and dedicated workforce from Blaen Twyni to our Radnor family. The opportunity for us to continue to safeguard jobs in Wales and to offer further employment opportunities to the local area in the fullness of time is extremely important to us.”

He added: “We are grateful to Highland Spring Group for this opportunity and for the professional and helpful approach of their team, which has made the transition as smooth as possible.”

It follows Radnor’s multi-million pound investment in new offices and production facilities at its Knighton site in April this year in order to boost production capacity and create 30 new jobs. The expansion included 17,000 sq ft in new office space, at a cost of £2.5m, and £4.5m on a new glass filling line at its 300,000 sq ft factory.

The drinks brand has seen impressive growth in the last year as the economy recovered following the Covid-19 pandemic. In its last financial year ending 31 May 2022, it saw sales of £58m, up from £41m in 2021, and made a pre-tax profit of £9.1m. The company now has a turnover of £64.4m and produces over 400 million drinks every year.

The firm supplies its glass, canned, plastic, and Tetrapak packaged products to over 250 UK wholesalers and supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. It also supplies the public sector including the NHS and schools with its Radnor Splash range. It is the only producer that does all four packaging formats for its soft drinks on site in the whole of the UK.

Simon Oldham, managing director of Highland Spring Group, said: “We’re pleased to have agreed this deal with Radnor, and I would like to personally thank every single member of the site’s operations team for their professionalism and support during this transition. We wish them and the team at Radnor the very best for the future.”