INTERNATIONAL foods group Danone has celebrated a £20m investment to upgrade its hi-tech medical foods manufacturing facility in Wavertree.

The three-year improvements programme was centred on Nutricia Liverpool, part of Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, and formerly known as SHS International before its acquisition by the Netherlands-based group.

The business can trace its history in Liverpool to more than 120 years.

It is now part of a specialised healthcare unit of Danone which develops and manufactures medical nutrition for many types of consumers and patients at all stages of life, but particularly young children and the elderly.

The company works closely with healthcare professionals and carers in many countries to ensure quality and service standards for patients.

Nutricia Liverpool is the development and manufacturing centre for protein-free brands such as Neocate – for cow's milk allergy – and Anamix and Lophlex – for consumers with inherited metabolic disorders such as PKU.

The site has been in continuous production for specialised nutrition since 1986 and is renowned for making Lorenzo’s Oil, named after youngster Lorenzo Odone, who suffered a severely debilitating disease.

His parents developed Lorenzo’s Oil in response to universal scepticism of a cure throughout the medical world.

Their struggle was the subject of a 1992 film featuring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. The investment programme focused on improvements to the site’s infrastructure, manufacturing processes and employee skills, enabling the site to aspire to world-class status in the field of advanced medical nutrition.

Nutricia Liverpool’s state-of-the-art production facilities have been designed to pharmaceutical standards to create high quality products in the safest conditions.

Business leaders joined the president of Nutricia, Flemming Morgan, for the celebration, billed as a “New Beginning” for Nutricia in Liverpool.

The event, on Wavertree Boulevard, included a guided tour of the new production facilities and the planting of a commemorative tree by company leaders and Lord Mayor Hazel Williams.