Nestlé Dalston
Welcome to the home of Nescafé Cappuccino
Nestlé in Dalston, a village near Carlisle in Cumbria, has been a key site for Nestlé since 1962.
Originally focused on the production of powdered and condensed milk, the factory was built in Cumbria to be close to dairy farms for fresh milk supply.
Nestlé Dalston expanded its operations in 1992 to include cappuccino mixes, becoming a success story for British manufacturing.
As of 2018, the factory produces a vast range of Nescafé Frothy Coffees, Nescafé Gold Blend frothy coffees, and Coffee Mate.
NESCAFÉ Original
Nescafé Gold
Nestlé Coffee Mate
Today, Nestlé Dalston produces up to 25 million Nescafé cappuccinos every week.
Our workforce
At Nestlé Dalston, our people are collaborative, innovative and looking to challenge and drive change. With around two-thirds of our UK and Ireland workforce dedicated to Operations, we know our brands are in great hands in our factories.
With more than 340 employees, including apprentices, graduates, and placement students, Nestlé Dalston is committed to nurturing talent. In the UK and Ireland, we typically employ 180-200 apprentices across the business at any given time and recruit around 30-40 graduates every September. Our Nestlé Academy schemes offer aspiring professionals the chance to launch their career, retrain their skills, and gain real on-the-job experience. You can find more information here.
Nestlé nurtures and supports its Women in Operations employee network, an initiative and area of focus for our business as we aim to improve opportunities for women to get into manufacturing and engineering roles and, furthermore, provide mentorship and support so their careers can flourish.
Roles at Nestlé Dalston
We have various roles that form our dedicated team at Dalston, ultimately contributing to our success.
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Engineering Our Engineering team ensures the smooth operation and maintenance of our facilities and equipment. -
HR and Training HR and Training play a crucial role in recruiting, developing, and supporting our talented workforce. -
Innovation and Renovation Innovation and Renovation drive our continuous improvement efforts, seeking new ideas and solutions. -
Labour Planning Our Labour Planning team ensures efficient staffing and scheduling to meet production demands.
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Manufacturing and Production Operations Manufacturing and Production Operations oversee the day-to-day manufacturing processes, ensuring quality and efficiency. -
Manufacturing Excellence Manufacturing Excellence focuses on optimising our operations and implementing best practices. -
Regulatory and Quality Regulatory and Quality ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations. -
Safety, Health and Environment Safety, Health and Environment prioritise the wellbeing of our employees and the sustainability of our operations. -
Supply Chain Our Supply Chain team manages the flow of materials and products to meet customer demands.
Making a positive difference
Nestlé Dalston uses millions of litres of fresh milk each year for its hot beverages and has been working with First Milk, a British farmer-owned dairy co-operative, for more than 20 years to strengthen connections with farmers in Cumbria – all within a 50-mile radius of the factory.
Our goal, and that of First Milk, is to lessen environmental impact by improving the sustainability and efficiency of the supply chain. Each farmer receives a ’sustainability bonus’ for taking practical measures that protect and enhance natural assets on their land.
Recognising the importance of farming in rural communities, Nestlé is also working with First Milk to strengthen these connections in Cumbria. The initiatives include the Women in Agriculture initiative, enabling female farmers to share experiences and support each other; the next generation leadership programme for young farmers; and school visits to farms to educate children about the relationship between farming and the environment.
Read more about our responsible farming, and sustainably sourced milk here.
The factory can process up to 450,000 litres of fresh milk in a single day!
Nestlé Dalston is proud to support local groups and events in the community
Not least through the two-day volunteering allowance each employee is encouraged to take– which would equate to approximately 120,000 hours of volunteering a year which many will chose to take locally.
From hosting young professionals' events and delivering career insight days with social enterprise WildHearts, to sponsoring the Dalston Agricultural Show, or partnering with PhunkyFoods to support local schools with engaging education on healthy eating and lifestyles.
Nescafé and packaging
Nestlé’s vision is that none of its packaging ends up in landfill or as litter.
In the UK and Ireland, efforts continue at pace to ensure as close to 100% of Nestlé packaging is designed for recycling by 2025, and Nestlé continues to work towards all of its packaging being recyclable or reusable.
Nescafé Frothy Coffee, produced at the Dalston site, is a creamy and smooth coffee powder within a convenient sachet, packed into a paper carton which is 100% recyclable. Nestlé Dalston has been converting the sachet filling lines into the new Design for Recyclability Laminate, which is recyclable at supermarket return points.
Read more here about how we're taking action on plastics and packaging.
Sourcing our Nescafé coffee
Advancing regenerative agriculture at scale is one of Nestlé’s key objectives of its net zero roadmap to help source its ingredients sustainably in the future, aiming to improve soil health, sequester carbon, support food security and improve resilience of farming communities, restore water resources and enable biodiversity.
Nescafé is striving to make coffee farming more sustainable. All coffee used in Nescafé products made in the UK is 100% responsibly sourced, ensuring that every cup of Nescafé coffee can help make a difference.
Updated and reinvigorated at the end of 2022, the Nescafé Plan 2030 sets out how the brand would invest globally over one billion Swiss francs by 2030, to help drive regenerative agriculture, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve farmers' livelihoods.
Nestlé Dalston has received more than £70 million worth of investment in the past decade, including machinery upgrades that enhance output and efficiency.
Virtual School Trip
Our Nestlé Dalston site is the feature of our free, interactive school trip created by Community Windpower, First Milk and Nestlé. The virtual, interactive resource contains a series of virtual tours, videos, quizzes and games for children, aged 7-12, around a wind farm, dairy farm, and our Dalston coffee factory.
The guided tours, hosted by children's TV presenter Rhys Stephenson, give children the chance to see the inner workings of a wind farm, inside a cow milking parlour - and how the milk crumb can be used to make frothy coffees and hot chocolate in the factory, and how the coffee is roasted from bean to cup. All without leaving their classroom or home.
