Major expansion plans for Althams Butchers

Planning consent has been granted for a state-of-the-art meat processing facility for Althams Butchers in Lancashire, a business supplying some of the UK's top hotels and restaurants.

Althams employs more than 100 staff and supplies prime beef, pork, lamb and fine foods and has outgrown its existing premises at White Lund in Morecambe. The expansion will also enable 20-25 new jobs.

A free-range pork farm that previously operated from the Hillside Farm site closed in 2012 and the farmhouse and outbuildings have been unused since. The redundant buildings will make way for a 5,100 sq m facility that will feature the latest preparation, packing and refrigeration facilities.

Harrison Pitt Architects has designed the purpose-built facility which will be built at Hillside Farm, Morecambe.

Richard Parker, a director of Harrison Pitt Architects, said: "We're delighted that Althams Butchers can now move forward with its expansion plans, an aspiration that wasn't possible with the constraints of its existing premises.

"This new facility will allow the business to operate more efficiently and will also provide an economic boost to the area by allowing new jobs to be created.

The building, which will be clad in timber, has been designed to give the appearance of a series of linked agricultural barns and Althams Butchers also intend to provide its own shuttle bus service to offer sustainable transport to employees travelling from Heysham and Morecambe.

Althams Butchers is still an independent family-owned business. Today the business is operated by Thomas Altham's great, great grandsons James and Richard Altham.

The company's customers include English Lakes Hotels, Northcote Manor, Liverpool FC, Hotel Du Vin, Malmaison Hotels and Virgin Trains.

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