Treasury Minister Andrew Jones has been given a tour of Kenwood’s upgraded Havant Headquarters after being invited by local MP Alan Mak.
Kenwood has just completed a £6million refurbishment of the site, from where all of its iconic products are designed and tested. During the visit the Minister spoke with staff members from all departments as well as seeing some of the products in action.
After the tour Alan joined Andrew to open Kenwood’s brand new experience centre, a fully operational cookery academy where anyone can go and learn how to cook and prepare food using the Kenwood products.
Kenwood employs more than 250 people at its Havant site and has been based in Havant since 1962, last year celebrating its 70th anniversary.
Local business leaders were also invited to a question and answer sessions with the Minister, where he spoke on the Government’s Brexit plans as well as hearing about local issues.
Alan said: “A strong local economy is my top priority, and I was delighted to bring Treasury Minister Andrew Jones to Havant to help me open Kenwood’s new experience centre. I welcome Kenwood’s £6M investment into our area helping to secure local jobs. Kenwood are a fantastic local business, and I’m delighted products designed in Havant are exported around the world boosting our local economy.”
Mark Welch, Chief Executive of Kenwood, said: “We are delighted to have welcomed Andrew and Alan to Kenwood on the 70th anniversary of the company. We see great opportunity in the future for food preparation that evolves to meet the changing consumer tastes and passion and it was good to highlight to Andrew and Alan the needs of the business within the region.”
Picture: Alan Mak MP and Andrew Jones MP in Kenwood’s new customer experience centre with Mark Welch and Neal Jones from Kenwood