Nestle Waters join Buxton business group to ‘understand community needs’ after £31m investment

Hayley Lloyd House, head of corporate affairs and sustainability at Nestlé Waters UK, has a background in communications.

She hopes to use that experience to help ‘shout about Buxton’ - focusing on the town’s visitor economy to help small and medium businesses do well.

Her appointment comes as the company announced an investment of £31 million in its Buxton factory to increase capacity, improve distribution and reduce carbon emissions.

Vision Buxton’s aim is to bring together local businesses, community groups and individuals to make Buxton ‘an even better place to live, work and play’.

Hayley says Buxton has ‘so much to offer’ - especially now the Crescent has reopened as a five-star hotel operated by an international spa chain.

However she added that even more challenging times were ahead.

She said: “As a community and as businesses now is the time for us to pull together and look at how we can work collaboratively and think about the road ahead to support Buxton.

“That means shouting about Buxton and helping people get excited about the town.”

Hayley said she recognised that Buxton was made up of ‘a variety of different-sized businesses’.

She added: “One of the things I’ve learned is really listening to people’s views and understanding what the community needs.

“I’m really looking forward to participating in forums and members meetings (at Vision Buxton) to understand what’s important to these businesses.”

She added that she was ‘really excited’ having the Crescent ‘on the doorstep’.

Hayley said: “I really hope it will bring new people to the town - Buxton has so much to offer families looking for this sort of holiday experience.

“I’m hopeful that the new landscape for businesses and visitors coming to the town will bring more opportunities.”

Adrian Brown, vice chair for Vision Buxton, said: “Nestle Waters has played a vital role in Buxton’s economy for many years in the bottling and distribution of Buxton Mineral Water.

“The company is a supporter and sponsor of the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and it will continue to play an important part in the town’s marketing efforts - especially in terms of the re-opening of the Crescent.”

Meanwhile work on a £26m extension to the factory’s warehouse facility to create a state-of-the-art logistics operation – reducing the need for external storage - is expected to be complete by spring 2021.

A further £5m is being spent on the construction of a new pipeline from another natural mineral water source – the Rockhead spring at Cowdale Quarry.

Speaking about the new facilities Hayley said: “We’re major employer and those who work here are part of the local community - this investment further cements our long-term partnership with the Buxton community.”

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