FROZEN food giant Dalepak is ploughing £2.5 million into improving its North Yorkshire factory.

The project, to be completed by November, is the final phase of a £7.5 million refurbishment of the site at Leeming Bar, near Northallerton.

Upgrades at the site, built in 1976, will include a new cold store and a new dry ingredients store.Dalepak, which currently employs 375 people at Leeming Bar, is the leading business within the Cavaghan & Gray Frozen Food Division.

Steve Crossley, Frozen Food Division managing director, said while the money was being used to upgrade facilities he was confident it would eventually lead to the creation of some new jobs.

He said: "Final approval of the project by our new parent company, Northern Foods, demonstrates a commitment to providing first class production facilities to more than meet the stringent demands of our quality customer base."Completion of the project will give us some of the UK's best manufacturing environments.

"The Leeming Bar project maintains our strategy of investment in the Frozen Food market-place which, latterly, has been sadly neglected in favour of more chilled alternatives."

Mr Crossley said improvements would also include product segregation following an increase in demand for vegetable-based and vegetarian products.

He said: "It is our view that Frozen Food must fight to regain its rightful place in the domestic freezer cabinet and this will only happen by delivering quality improvement, good food values and exciting innovation.

"We will continue to invest in development, in facilities, in people, in product innovation and in marketing, to forcefully emphasise our commitment to the market-place."

Dalepak enjoyed a massive surge in demand, particularly for its vegetable-based products at the height of the BSE beef crisis. It fell back slightly when other manufacturers produced competing brands of alternative-to-meat dinners, including Bird's Eye and Linda McCartney products.

But new "veggie" brands formulated by Dalepak such as Crispy Vegetable Fingers have begun to restore the company's high market share, while maintaining popularity of its meat brands Lamb Grilled Steak, Peppered Beef Grills and Minted Lamb Grills.

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