Pic’s newly opened Peanut Butter World in Nelson’s Stoke region is a rare dyad. It is a gabled factory that is curiously playful, seeming less like a manufacturing facility and more like an oleaginous dream prompted by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with owner Pic Picot as its exuberant Willy Wonka – sans top hat and velvet coat. 

“Pic himself has an infectious enthusiasm for architecture and all things different and playful,” says Simon Hall, principal at Jerram Tocker Barron Architects, who designed the factory. “He also has a passion for the factory tours, so this became a focus for me: looking at how we could best celebrate the functions of the building in a whimsical way.”

The results of this approach can be seen throughout the 3,500m² space: a red path wends its way through many of the rooms that make up this not-so-secret land; a spiral stair curls upwards around a central lift; and a circular entryway, complete with an imposing red star, makes for a grand walk into the glazed public foyer. 

Of these, the stair, comprising one tonne of steel, is one of the most striking features and was one of the most difficult in terms of engineering. It was under way before the majority of the fit-out, requiring additional foundations, a lift well and multiple assemblies both on and off site. Alone, it took four months to finish. 

The factory tours, which allow visitors to make their own peanut butter, were hard won by extensive planning of the overall flow of the facility and its processes. Now, one can interact with Pic’s products throughout. Even after indulging oneself on tour, an on-site café run by award-winning company Pomeroy’s, continues the experience for visitors by serving peanut butter coffee, among other things.

For Hall, it was clear from the beginning that importance also needed to be given to vividly communicating the company’s brand. “Pic’s peanut butter is a very honest and community-focused product,” he points out, “and this is shown with the honest, natural materials used in the space-planning. There is nothing to hide; it’s all on show in the generosity and scale of the public spaces, which match those of the factory.” The incorporation of an employee wall of fame, featuring playfully dressed people posing for their portraits, is but a testament to this.

Set against the Stoke area, the factory occupies a unique position, one identifiable by the mercurial direction of the wind and the fare nearby, explains Hall. “If there’s a westerly, you’ll smell apples, a northerly, smoked fish, a southerly, freshly roasted coffee beans, and an easterly, roasted peanuts.”

Olfactory considerations aside, it’s the consistency of Pic’s Peanut Butter World’s design that makes a lasting impression. “Factories don’t necessarily need to be dull buildings,” asserts Hall. “They have a big visual impact on the surrounding landscape and I see them as an important part of the fabric of any city; they should have architectural approaches and responses like any other type of building, not just from the exterior but from the interior as well.”

It’s a formula that has successfully translated a recognised brand identity into a building with all of the markers of Pic’s Peanut Butter’s fun-loving maker, who began his pursuit of nut butters in a fitted-out home garage. In this sense, the factory is a grand move forward, representative of the millions of jars now sold per year, and a bold example of what can happen when personality – be it of a product, an ambassador or, in this case, both – is continually referenced. The building retains a modern sharpness while dipping deliberately and triumphantly into the realm of the fantastical.

This article first appeared in Interior magazine.

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