Fire breaks out at factory that makes malt used in Maltesers’ centres

Ewan Somerville23 January 2020

More than 40 firefighters have tackled a fire in a factory that makes malt used in the centre of Maltesers.

Eleven crews were called to Needham Road in Stowmarket, Suffolk, at 6.23am this morning after a blaze broke out in a silo holding 130 tonnes of grain.

The fire started at the top of a 25m steel drying chamber, the fire service said, and no injuries are reported.

The Cedars Malting factory, owned by Muntons, makes malt for the honeycomb centres of the popular chocolate brand and others.

Officials said production was unaffected.

Firefighters were drafted in from Ipswich, Debenham, Bury St Edmunds, Elmswell, Ixworth, Hadleigh and Haverhill to battle the blaze.

Dr Nigel Davies, manufacturing and sustainability director at the firm, said the new silo was “smoldering”. Staff are now being allowed back on site.

“It has not caused too much damage,” he said, adding that it remains “business as usual” but that the company was hunting the cause of the incident.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in