Encirc looks to enlarge at Elton
The bottle manufacturer and distributor wants to add a 272,500 sq ft warehouse at its Cheshire site, following demolition of legacy buildings.
Aew Architects and planning advisor Lichfields are working with the firm on the project at the Ash Road site. Automation would be heavily used within the expansion facility, with the 272,544 sq ft facility breaking down as:
- High-bay warehouse: 180,826 sq ft
- Dispatch facility: 60,117 sq ft
- Mezzanine space (operational): 24,435 sq ft
- Mezzanine space (offices): 7,166 sq ft
Initially trading as Quinn Glass, Encirc has been operating at Elton since 2005, and has invested in the site at various times since, making it a significant production facility performing beyond early expectations. The company joined the Vidrala Group in 2015.
One of the furnaces Encirc has rebuilt at Elton is the largest of its kind in the world, according to AEW’s design & access statement. The site now produces 2.2bn glass bottles a year.
The application follows a similar but larger application for an expansion facility put forward in 2023, a project being advanced in partnership with drinks giant Diageo. This 657,000 sq ft facility, also with AEW and Lichfields involved, was consented in August 2023.
The expansion site is next to the main building, and housed legacy buildings remaining from the former Ince B power station that had not been cleared at the time that the Quinn Glass plant was built in 2005.
These buildings were primarily administration and workshop facilities that were partly reused by Quinn and then Encirc – there was a four-storey control tower, two-storey office block plus workshops and a number of other low level brick buildings.
Demolition has been carried out, approved by Cheshire West and Chester Council, starting last December and due for completion in October 2026.
Other members of the professional team include DEP, TEP, Lanpro, iTransport, Merebrook, Curtins, and WSP.
The site is close to Elton railway station and the M56, sitting around 3km east of the M53.
Want to know more? Encirc’s plans can be seen on CWAC’s planning portal, using the reference 26/02766/FUL.
