News: Rotherham's Rank Hovis mill is toast

The iconic Rank Hovis flour mill in Rotherham looks set to be demolished.

The multi storey facility at Canklow was constructed in the late 1960s with further additions up to the 1980s. Premier Foods, the owners of Rank Hovis, closed the mills in 2008 due to the production of flour in the area not being viable due to over production capacity within the group. The adjacent distribution centre remained in operation.

Plans have now been submitted to determine whether prior approval is needed for the demolition of concrete framed structures on the site. The plans were submitted by ASC Contracts Limited, a Renishaw company that specialises in preparing brownfield sites for redevelopment.

However, due to the site being larger than 0.5 hectares, full detailed plans for the demolition will need to be submitted. The plans state that the configuration of the buildings does not allow for anything other than the milling of flour on the site, and as such, demolition is necessary to bring the site back into use and prepare it for possible redevelopment works.

The freehold site was put up for sale by Premier Foods last year with a guide price of £1.2m. The site covers approximately 1.93 ha providing a total floorspace of approximately 163,400 sq ft.

Crispin Stephenson, who is leading the project for ACS Contracts Ltd, said: "We hope to use the site for storage in the short term and we will apply for a change of use to B2/B8 to enable general industrial and storage and distribution uses.

"We have been talking to a number of developers about a range of uses for the site including housing, and we have partners who are looking at business units. It is a bit of a blank canvas really."

According to the South Yorkshire Archaeology Service, historical maps show "Town Mills (corn)" on the Canklow Road site, indicating a long history of milling. The Ordnance Survey map of 1854 labels the building as "Old Brewery" and it is unknown if milling occurred alongside this or earlier.

Documents detailing the history of the Feoffees of Rotherham set out that "land in Canklowefield "on windmill hill"" was leased to Richard Milner, a maultster, in 1672. Leases of the Sheffield Estate mention John Taylor of Canklow Mills when he leased land from the Duke of Norfolk in 1783.

Records also show a John Jackson of Canklow Mills in 1839, and Charles Garfit of Dunlee, co. Cork. leasing "land with Cornmill called Canklow Mill", in 1886.

"Canklow Mill from the railway bank" is an oil painting by C Boocock in 1857 that depicts a locomotive in the foreground with the mill in the background. It is in a collection at the National Railway Museum.

ACS Contracts Ltd website

Images: Premier Foods / CBRE

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News: Premier Foods extends Capgemini outsourcing contract

Premier Foods, the UK's largest food producer, has once again renewed its long-term IT outsourcing alliance with Capgemini UK plc in a new contract worth an estimated £9m for the five-year period 2014-2019.

The contract covers the Premier Foods IT infrastructure including data centre and technical support for all core business systems.

Systems supported involve hardware at Capgemini data centres in Rotherham and Bristol, with additional support from the company's infrastructure management command centre in Krakow, Poland, and from a Capgemini development centre in Mumbai, India.

Under the contract Capgemini will continue to support the IT infrastructure that underpins the many famous Premier Foods brands such as Hovis, Ambrosia, Mr Kipling, Sharwood's, Batchelors, Quorn, Loyd Grossman, Oxo, Bisto and many others.

Phil McCallum, Director of IT & Infrastructure at Premier Foods, said: "We have built up a very effective working relationship with Capgemini over a number of years.

"The degree of trust and confidence between our two businesses has continued to grow, and I am therefore delighted that Capgemini has been able to offer us a technically and commercially attractive proposition reaching right through to 2019."

Avril Francis, Senior Account Executive at Capgemini UK plc, added: "Our client management and service delivery teams have consistently risen to the challenge of anticipating and meeting Premier Foods' evolving needs, and of demonstrating their commitment to continuous improvement and real collaboration.

"It is great news that their efforts have been rewarded with this important new contract."

Capgemini website

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News: Rotherham's Hovis plant set to close

A dominant feature of the Rotherham skyline looks set to change as the Hovis site in Canklow is earmarked for closure. In reporting their latest financial results, Premier Foods, the owner of Hovis stated: "Following a review of our flour milling operations we entered into consultation with employees regarding the proposed closure of our Rotherham mill, which, if agreed, will be scheduled to close by the end of 2008." The Yorkshire Post reports that 38 staff are affected by the decision with the group hoping to relocate a number of employees within the company. The adjacent distribution centre, which employs 35 people, will remain open. Premier reported that first-half sales for the group as a whole had risen by 7 per cent and that £15m had been spent to revive the struggling Hovis bread business. Sales in its baking and milling division rose by 16% year-on-year due to price rise across its bread and flour ranges. Sales of Hovis has stabilised over the first half of the year but at lower levels than during the same period in 2007. “Premier Foods is among many companies hit by rocketing wheat and energy prices,” said the director of the council’s Planning & Regeneration Service, Paul Woodcock. “We sympathise with the business sector in the current circumstances and are certainly glad to work with companies to see if there’s any help we can give, such as looking for more suitable premises, or helping redundant workers find new jobs. “It's sad to lose such a strong brand name from the borough, but we’re particularly sorry to see jobs go."
The Times article

Yorkshire Post article

The Star article
Rotherham

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