£8.5m investment will meet growing demand for porridge

Quaker Oats So Simple revolutionised the porridge market and broke the barriers to porridge consumption by making it easier to cook and offering taste variations. To meet increasing consumer demand, PepsiCo UK is investing £8.5 million in its Quaker Oats site in Cupar. This investment will increase their milling and rolling capacity by 4.5 tonnes per hour.

  • The demand for Quaker Oats hot cereals has grown by 13 per cent over the last year.
  • Quaker Oats has worked hard to highlight the health benefits of their products, so people are eating porridge all year round. Last summer, sales of Quaker Oats were year-on-year 24 per cent higher than the previous summer (source: Nielsen).
  • The investment will boost Quaker's oat milling capacity and will include a new manufacturing line for the Quaker Oat So Simple brand in order to increase production.

Oats so SimpleQuaker Oats will benefit from a new state-of-the-art plant based at the Cupar site, helping to boost its oat milling capacity and allow for increased production.

The £8.5 million investment will be used to build a flaking mill and new warehouse at the plant which will result in:

  • An increase in production of Quaker Oats So Simple sachets, which will increase from 10.5 million to 13.5 million per week
  • An increase in the milling and rolling capacity at the site, which will increase by 4.5 tonnes per hour
  • An improved materials flow in the plant by adapting the way materials are handled and their storage systems.

Porridge has become an ever more popular and all-year round breakfast choice for UK consumers.

In particular, the Quaker Oat So Simple range has been driving the company's growth with sales of the product's flavour variants growing by 30 per cent year on year. The launch of this range revolutionised the porridge market as it made it easier for people to cook porridge and offered taste variations.

Quaker Oats have produced on the Cupar site since 1947 and produces most of its oat products for the UK, Europe and Middle East. The site is currently home to Quaker Oats, Scott's Porage Oatsand Quaker Oat So Simple.

Did you know?

  • Quaker Oats is the biggest buyer of oats in the Scottish market, buying approximately 35,000 tonnes of oats direct from Scottish farmers each year.
  • Originally there were 30 workers at the Cupar factory and oat production was predominantly in winter, now there are 200 workers and the factory runs 24/7 all year.

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