LINCOLN, UK. — PepsiCo UK has announced plans to invest £24 million ($33.1 million) to upgrade its Quavers snacks plant in Lincoln, UK. As part of the investment, PepsiCo said it will upgrade equipment, including the addition of a compact packaging machine that the company said will create training opportunities for employees while removing packaging from the company’s supply chain.

Introduced in 1968, Quavers are a deep-fried potato-based British snack food. Originally made by Smiths, they are now produced by Walkers, which was acquired by PepsiCo in 1995.

The investment in the Lincoln plant follows similar investments at PepsiCo’s Skelmersdale and Coventry Walkers facilities to install specialist compact packaging machinery, leading to a 30% reduction in outer packaging on average across snacks multipacks, according to PepsiCo.  The new equipment is expected to be installed in Lincoln by the middle of 2022.

“We’ve always had a strong heritage in the Midlands, providing jobs to almost 2,000 people in the region across our factories in Lincoln, Leicester and Coventry,” said Nigel Beilby, operations manager at the Lincoln plant. “For decades, our Lincoln factory has brought much-loved Quavers snacks to consumers up and down the country, and with this state-of-the-art technology, we’re confident that the site will continue to serve the nation for many years to come.”