Drinks wholesaler depot opens in Northampton after £3 million investment

In June 2016 LWC Drinks purchased Sixfields-based drinks distributor, Middleton Wholesale for over £8 million before investing a further £3 million into opening a new Northampton depot on Spencer Bridge Road.

The depot, which employs 24 staff at the new site and will create a further 15 job vacancies in the next 18 months, distributes alcohol and soft drinks to pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels in a 50-mile radius.

Northampton depot manager Nick Middleton took over Middleton Wholesale from his dad when he was 24 years old and he has now found himself part of a £330 million national firm.

He said: "The Middleton family have been in brewing for years, it's a family business. The wholesale business was set up in 1983 and then I sold that in 2016.

"He [Nick's dad] set it up in 1983 - I then went to Oxford to work for a brewery down there and I came back when I was 21. At the age of 24 I took over as managing director - that was never the plan - and we built the business up, myself and my wife.

"We turned over eight and a half million when we sold the business, it was the right place, right time with LWC and it was the right opportunity to move on."

LWC Drinks currently carries 7,000 different products and also distils its own gin called Agnes Arber and Tiki Fire rum.

He added: "We were Middleton Wholesale, which was my business - so I sold the business to LWC and they have reinvested into this business here to expand.

"At the moment we have 24 people working out of this site - distribution, office administration and sales team.

"Middleton wholesale had a warehouse in Sixfields and that was not going to be big enough for LWC's plans so that's why we needed to build this particular depot."