A new production facility which can fill 30,000 cans of cider an hour has been opened by Thatchers Cider.

The canning line has been installed in the flagship Jubilee Building – which was built in 2014 – and will allow Thatchers to do more work on site at its Myrtle Farm base in Sandford.

The facility features ‘state-of-the-art’ automation, robotics and inspection systems.

Managing director, Martin Thatcher, said: “It was always our intention to install a canning line and bring all our packaging under one roof.

“We have previously needed to have our ciders canned by a third party off site, however, bringing this process into Myrtle Farm offers huge advantages of many different kinds, not least for staff development.”