ONE of the largest solar panel schemes in the city has been installed by a Bradford labelling manufacturer which is looking to operate a carbon neutral factory by the end of next year.

Watermill Press has installed 750 solar panels covering almost the entire 3,000 sq m roof of its Pitcliffe Way headquarters, in West Bowling.

The 111Kw system will provide 75 per cent of the factory’s future electricity demand.

The panels will save in the region of £20,000 a year in electricity bills when coupled with payments from the Government’s Feed-in Tariff scheme. Dale Deacon,Watermill Press managing director, said: “We have invested £90,000 in the solar system which will be paid back to us in just over four and a half years. For any business with a large roof, it makes complete commercial and environmental sense.

“Our production floor has a large number of the world’s most sophisticated label converting machinery that runs for 12 hours per day, using a great deal of electricity.

“This installation protects the business from future price volatility in the energy markets and at the same time will reduce the carbon footprint of the business by over 50 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

“It forms an integral part of our aim to make the operation of our Bradford factory entirely carbon neutral by the end of 2016. We believe it is the biggest commercial solar scheme to be installed in Bradford so far, but would love to hear from other like-minded organisations who have installed large systems and would like to share their experiences.”

Watermill Press is the UK’s leading manufacturer of product identification labels with clients throughout the retail and food and drinks manufacturing industries with clients including Marks & Spencer, Britvic, Princes Food and the Robert McBride Group.

The company recently invested £1 million in new equipment and became one of the first companies in the country to use the 530mm wide Omega label printing and converting machines. The investment gave Watermill the largest dedicated production capacity for product identification labels.

Two large new contracts with major retailers, won as a direct result of the recent investment, saw turnover rise from £5.5 million in 2013 to £7.5 million in 2014. In addition six new staff were employed to manage and run the technology, taking the workforce to 26.