The company, whose customers include Waitrose, has been looking for a new site for five years, md Laurie Jenman told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
He said that the company had outgrown its existing site, and was also facing “astronomical” charges to renew its lease there.
“This site in Lymington is only a mile away from our present factory. We can’t get enough electricity to run more than one of our three production lines there. In this new site we will be able to run five or six lines,” said Jenman.
Staff increases
Up until now the New Forest Ice Cream had to produce stocks to store for the summer throughout the winter months.
Staff numbers are set to be increased from the current 10 to 20 or 30 following the multi-million pound move to the new site, he added.
The purchase of the site is set to complete on Monday and it would take between 12 and 15 months to commission the new site, Jenman added.
New Forest Ice Cream supplies retailers including Waitrose, Tesco and Asda as well as restaurants nationwide.