Report - Campbells Soup Factory -Kings Lynn - 26/9/09

[Speed]

When they announced this place was to close got pretty excited. iconic brand, big factory, big tower! Well in the end it wasnt the explore i had hoped. Ive been before and been scuppered by the mass of CCTV and mass boarding! Now work has started on asbestos removal it has become possible but unfortunatly the best has been missed. The factory is now very stripped and i got collared before making it to the offices, athough i have no reason to suspect they are any different.

However all was not lost! the tower was cool and i also uncovered a huge network of service tunnels. Indeed most of the building is built on stilts leaving space to run services under the floor. It turned a slighly dissapointing explore into something i quite enjoyed!

The first cans rolled off the production line here in 1959, in the first major Campbell's factory outside America. Within 20 years the factory employed more than 500 staff, making more than 60 varieties of soup. As if one culinary legend wasn't enough, Fray Bentos pies moved here in the early 90s, but sadly even this couldn't guarantee the factory's future. Premier Foods bought the company for £460 million in 1996 and in January 2007 it announced that it would be closing the site with the loss of 245 jobs.

In the UK and Ireland, Campbell Soup was rebranded as Batchelors Condensed Soup in the UK and Ireland in March 2008, when the license to use the brand name expired. Premier Foods, St. Albans, Hertfordshire bought the Campbell Soup Company in the UK and Ireland, for £450m ($830m) in 2006, but was licensed to use the brand only until 2008.