TENBURY’S largest employer has spread its wings and opened a warehouse in Leominster.

Bill Wiggin, MP for North Herefordshire, performed the opening ceremony at the Orchard Valley Foods warehouse which marks the latest expansion for the business that started in a front room and now employs 70 people as well as exporting all over the world.

The company has signed a 10-year lease on large warehousing facilities (43,000 sq ft for 5,500 pallet spaces) in the Leominster Enterprise Park on Clinton Road.

This will allow it to consolidate its UK external storage and the Clinton Road site will become Orchard Valley’s UK distribution hub, serving up to 700 customers in the UK and abroad.

The site will also service the packing operation in Tenbury with raw materials and packaging. Initially it will create three new jobs but more are expected in the future.

Orchard Valley Foods provides ingredients for the baking and confectionery industry as well as supplying to home bakers.

But this is not an end to the expansion because there is also a product-development kitchen being opened at the Burford site.