Family-owned international Colours and Flavours manufacturer Plant-Ex Ingredients are pleased to announce the commissioning of a third spray drying tower at their UK Headquarters site in Bristol. This is part of a £4 million infrastructure investment programme that began in 2025, and allows the company to double their UK capacity for the supply of powdered Natural Colours and Flavours.
Spray drying is the atomising of a liquid product under high pressure/speed at the top of a tall tower, wherein hot air is circulated to evaporate the liquid phase and deposit a fine dry powder. Most manufacturers contract this service out to third parties, but Plant-Ex took the decision in 2017 to bring this complex process in-house, thereby maintaining control over product quality and intellectual property. The organisation also has towers at their factory in Konya, Central Turkey and Plant-Ex have become internationally recognised for their skillset in this field.
Innovation Centre
The latest round of investment in Plant-Ex’s UK infrastructure is drawing to a conclusion with just an addition to the multi-laboratory Innovation Centre to be concluded, but the additions to the site include a Pasteurisation Facility, a tripling of capacity in the Emulsion manufacturing unit, and a 20,000sq foot expansion of the Flavours and Extraction unit.
With revenue levels racing toward £40 million for 2026, this team of 160+ are rocketing toward their next goal of a brand new factory opening in Turkey in July 2026, an expansion of their production facility in Poland in August 2026 and announcing plans for further activity in the USA in 2027.