Kraft Heinz will start making sauces in the UK for the first time in decades, after announcing a £140 million investment into a Wigan factory.

The Kitt Green plant, Europe’s largest food manufacturing site, will start producing ketchup, mayonnaise and salad cream in addition to the 1.3 billion cans it churns out every year.

It marks Kraft Heinz’s biggest expansion of a manufacturing site outside the US in more than twenty years.

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The company said its investment will also fund new equipment and create up to 50 full-time jobs.

Heinz sauces were last made in the UK in 1999.

UK investment minister Gerry Grimstone called the investment “a vote of confidence in the UK economy from a major US firm and a boost that will mean jobs and growth for the local economy”.

The news comes after Kraft Heinz revealed its first quarter profits had increased by over 18 per cent since last year.

Heinz ketchup sachets have seen a surge in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the US facing shortages in April.

The company said the popularity was down to “accelerated delivery and take-out trends”.