Back to News

Our expansion plans for higher quality and lower carbon footprint

At Packington Pork, we rear our pigs using two different methods; outdoor bred and free range.

As part of the outdoor-bred side of the business, plans are underway to build two new pig houses. RSPCA-accredited under the Freedom Foods banner, our outdoor-bred pigs live outside for the first 12-weeks of life, with the second half of their lives spent indoors on straw bedding. We then sell the meat from this method to premium retailers including Marks & Spencer, for their own-label produce.

This differs from our free-range production, where pigs spend their entire lives in outdoor paddocks, and it is these pigs which are sold under the Packington Pork banner, as free range pigs, to butcher shops nationwide. Despite this difference, we take pride in knowing that animals on both sides of the business are treated with the highest welfare standards.

Our plans for two new sheds is with the hope that by bringing some of the process in-house, and therefore controlling the rearing process from birth for the whole of the animals’ lives, we can ensure the highest level of quality control and the most transparent provenance possible.

In addition, creating state-of-the-art facilities locally on the Barton-under-Needwood farm estate will also allow us to lower our carbon footprint: The sheds have been designed with natural ventilation, solar panels and a rainwater collection system, and the manure created by the animals will go straight back into local farmland. Having the sheds close-by to the outdoor-rearing facility should also lower our transportation requirements.

If planning consent is granted, the two new finishing sheds should be completed by the end of the summer.

Packington Free Range