A MULTI-million pound project to refurbish and enlarge an advanced dairy processing plant at Reaseheath College in Nantwich began this week.

The project will ensure that the leading land-based college can continue to offer world class facilities within its licensed food and drink manufacturing and processing halls.

In the first £1million pound phase, construction company ISG is stripping out and refurbishing the existing food processing halls and is also building a 200 square metre extension using a steel framed structure.

A further £1.9 million will be spent on fitting out the food halls with purpose built, industry standard machinery.

It is hoped that the work will be completed by March 2010.

Several million pounds worth of further investment in the college’s food and drink manufacturing area will follow.

The refurbishment will allow the college to expand its services to North West businesses and encourage business growth and diversification throughout the region.

Food manufacturers and new food producers will be encouraged to use the state-of-the-art facilities for new product development.

The new build has been made possible through a major grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

The food halls will also be used by students on the dairy industry’s new world class education initiative, Project Eden.

Project Eden is a groundbreaking partnership between leading dairy processors and manufacturers, Improve, the sector skills council for food and drink industry, and Dairy UK, the industry’s trade organisation.

The collaboration has resulted in a globally recognised, degree level qualification in dairy technology which was launched at Reaseheath in September.

The majority of students already work in the industry and require cutting edge facilities to help them take their careers forward.

College principal Meredydd David said: “The food and drink sector is a critically important part of the economy in the UK and particularly in the North West.

"It is wonderful to see work starting on a project which will enable us to continue to provide specialist support and knowledge and technology transfer to these industries.

"It will also help to maintain competitiveness and profitability during these challenging times.”

Craig Tatton, managing director of ISG’s regional business, added: "Multi-phased, live environment projects represent a core element of ISG’s education sector offering, with the business particularly successful in securing fast-track refurbishment, upgrade and extension schemes.

"Expertise and thorough sector knowledge enables our project teams to work in partnership with clients to deliver schemes on time, within budget and most importantly, to expectation.”