The food manufacturing giant’s Cavaghan & Gray factory has revealed details to equip a new 8,000sq ft production facility at its Riverbank site.

Investment in potato cooking and mash processing equipment, sauce cooking capability, two production lines and new chilled storage facilities are all planned.

The new development can accommodate up to 20% additional capacity at the existing site which will enable it to grow alongside customer demands.

The new facility, scheduled to be in operation by September, will be the hub for 25 additional product lines in the ‘Ready to Cook’ fish meal category. It will increase volume by an additional 10 million ready meals a year.

The new jobs created will range from production operatives through to skilled production, management, engineering and technical roles.

Cavaghan & Gray currently handles a number of product categories including potato based ready meals, vegetable accompaniments, fish cakes and crisp bakes, producing over 80 million meals every year.

William Duncanson, Carlisle Site Director, said: "This is fantastic news for the business and will secure a lot of new jobs for the area.

"This announcement further strengthens our strategic partnership with our customers and it also reflects the confidence held by them in the whole team here in Carlisle.

"We’ll now be focusing on the hard work ahead to get the new facility up-and-running and get the new lines in stores for later this year."

Carlisle MP John Stevenson said: "This is tremendous news for Carlisle. It demonstrates confidence in our city from a major business and shows a commitment to Carlisle, which is very welcome."