First UK electric malt lorry arrives at Boortmalt in Suffolk

Despite costing three times its diesel equivalent - which would be around £110k to £115k - Boortmalt in Bury St Edmunds believes the new 540kW Volvo FH electric bulk tipper which it has leased will be worth the considerable investment.

Luckily the company is already converting gas to electricity on site to power the factory - making the whole scheme much more manageable.

Boortmalt - a global maltings business based in Belgium - is keen to pursue a green agenda and has become the first malt firm in the UK to pilot an electric lorry at its Suffolk plant.

It will be used to serve one of its key customers - brewing giant Greene King - which is also based in Bury St Edmunds. It means a carbon saving for both companies.

Boortmalt also has an off-site barley store near the A140 at Mendlesham - so using the vehicle for these shorter journeys is seen as a no-brainer - and will mean the truck will become a regular sight on Suffolk's roads.

Boortmalt's Suffolk plant - which employs around 70 people - is one of five of the group's factories in the UK and Ireland and its biggest in the UK.

Powered by lithium ion batteries, the front of the new vehicle is not only longer in order to accommodate the batteries, it also weighs around 2 tonnes extra - meaning with its trailer it must shift a total of around 19t - even without a load. But it also uses less energy.

A fast 160kW charger installed on site can charge up the batteries from about 20 to 80% in around four hours but will generally be left overnight for a full charge which gives it a range of around 200 miles.

Plant manager Lee Peters said a CHP (combined heat and power) plant on site - which is powered by natural gas - meant the new vehicle worked well with the factory's existing energy system.

"It produces electricity and also heat as a by-product," he explained. The heat is used for certain factory processes and makes for a more energy-efficient system.

"We produce an excess of electricity that we obviously sell back to the grid but it's more cost-effective for us to use it," he explained. "If we can use it in our own processes or an electric truck its much more beneficial for us."

Global key account manager Sam Colman said the truck - which will be operated by hauliers Bartrums of Eye - came in a bit more expensive overall but had advantages.

It has been purchased on a four-year contract from Volvo and the pilot will provide a testing ground so that the company can see how it would work across the fleet.

"It's more expensive per tonne to run it but not prohibitive," said Sam. "It's slightly more expensive per mile per tonne because the truck is more expensive - but the fuel is less expensive."

Tremayne Johnson, operations director at Bartrums, pointed out that while longer, the vehicle has far fewer moving parts. "It's got three electric motors powering a gear box. It tends to be the batteries that degrade over time."

His company was first approached by Boortmalt about trialling an electric vehicle in 2019/20 - and since then his company was been working on securing the right manufacturer.  It was only recently that a product came on the UK market capable of doing what they wanted.

Across the world, Boortmalt has 27 plants and makes roughly 3m tonnes of malt. Until a merger in November it was the biggest malting company in the world. When French company Malteries Soufflet - owned by InVivo Group - bought United Malt it took over the top spot.

The Bury St Edmunds plant operates 24/7 365 days a year and delivers around 2,500 to 4,000t of malt.

It employs Bartrums for its outbound haulage and local merchants and some of its own fleet for in-bound deliveries.

The electric lorry will be used on two main routes - it will transport some of the deliveries from the Mendlesham site and all the bulk deliveries to Greene King as well as other customers in the region. It began operating this month, and is working well.

Boortmalt has been pursuing a sustainability agenda for a number of years. Its UK operation already sources all its barley from UK farmers and is encouraging more sustainable farming practices through its supply chain - while also keen to maintain crop quality.

The plant also malts barley from the Holkham Estate in Norfolk for Suffolk brewers Adnams of Southwold.

"They all have big sustainability goals. As Boortmalt we are investing a lot in our own practices," said Sam.

The company is reducing its water use and developing its recipes to use less heat, he explained. 

"It's a horses-for-courses environment but as a business we have got quite serious SPTi (Science Based Targets initiative) commitments and it's the right thing to do which is why we are quite passionate about it," he added.

"This is a really good opportunity to take advantage of a new form of doing something. The new lorry is brilliant. Within our customer base locally we think it will work."

Lee described it as "a big step towards decarbonising the supply chain".

Given that its big local customer lies in the historic heart of Bury St Edmunds it will bring another great benefit, he pointed out. As well as air quality benefits, the electric lorry is also very quiet - both big pluses for the community.