Case Study: How St. Modwen and Plant-Ex came up with a recipe for success

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Category: News

Step out of the car at St. Modwen Park Access 18 Avonmouth and – depending on which way the wind is blowing – your nose could be in for a real treat. The smell of different foods often fills the air, usually with the scents of sweet treats, savoury snacks or your favourite spices.

You can thank Plant-Ex Ingredients for the subsequent belly rumblings and cravings. A manufacturer of natural colours, flavourings and extracts used across the food industry, the company currently occupies four units at Access 18, having started their journey with St. Modwen back in 2018.

Case study – Plantex (vimeo.com)

Having started life as a one-man operation in a 2,500 sq ft unit, managing director and co-founder Giles Drewett now oversees the operation from their Avonmouth HQ which employs more than 100 people with an annual revenue of £25m.

“We chose Avonmouth as a key location for the organisation primarily because of the transport infrastructure. We’re close enough to the south-east to be able to access the major shipping ports and Heathrow, which is the main airport, without having the south-east cost base that is associated with it”

Giles Drewett, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Ex-Plant Ingredients

Plant-Ex are also a perfect example of how modern businesses are evolving their operations. Gone are the days where decisions would be taken from a headquarters hundreds of miles away from where the manufacturing itself took place. As is the case with more and more businesses, Plant-Ex houses all its employees in one space, leading to a real diversity of roles on offer within the buildings.

“Around 40% of our workforce is in an equipment manufacturing role. We’ve got engineers who are maintaining the existing equipment and others who are tasked with building our new manufacturing equipment. In addition, we’ve got a team of five quality control technicians, a team of eight quality assurance people and 15 people across our commercial and administrative team, so there’s a whole breadth of skills from manual labour through to quite high technical science roles.”

Giles Drewett, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Ex-Plant Ingredients

This level of growth has led to the constant need for more and more space and – such is the relationship built up over the years – Giles has entrusted St. Modwen Logistics to provide the perfect building to support Plant-Ex’s success at every turn.

“During the process, St. Modwen helped us to achieve a timetable for equipment installation, making sure that the car parks were laid in time so we could get heavy machinery across the yard and installed into the factory to keep to our schedules. And throughout the process, whenever we’ve moved into new units, they have taken our needs and requirements on board and assisted with installations within the units and on the yard. They have listened to our requirements and delivered against them, going above and beyond what you would expect as the norm from a landlord.”

Giles Drewett, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Ex-Plant Ingredients

To learn more about Plant-Ex, visit:

And to see how St. Modwen Park Access 18 Avonmouth could support your business, visit