MUESLI made in Ludlow is being eaten from breakfast tables in Japan.

Success in the Japanese market is the latest export success for the Ludlow Nut Company.

It follows on the winning of export orders in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Spain, Estonia and Norway.

Now to cope with this success and create space for expansion, the company will open a new chapter in its growth when it moves into a new purpose-built factory, warehouse and offices nearer the town centre.

The Ludlow Nut Company which started in the basement of a house in the town now employs nine people and has customers all over the country.

It is looking to expand and, to make this possible, needs to move to bigger premises that its current location on the Ludlow Eco Park.

So now the business has applied for planning permission to build a new factory warehouse and office on land on the Foldgate Lane Retail Park between Pets at Home and the Hagley Place Care Home.

If the planning application is successful it is hoped that the move can be completed by the end of this year or early in 2018.

“We have some exciting plans for the future and have simply outgrown our present site,” said Bob Graham, aged 70, who started the business with his wife Helen when they moved to Ludlow in 2004.

“When we started, it was just the two of us working from the basement of our home in Ludlow. As the business grew we moved to the Eco Park and took an extension but now we need more space and there is no chance of further expansion at the Eco Park.

“There are now nine of us and things are going well so we hope that there will be opportunities to take on new staff. It has been great to have been able to create jobs for local people.”

The business specialises in providing a high quality range of healthy foods.

Included in this are porridges, mueslis, granolas and a range of nut and seed butters. The products are hand made in the kitchen in Ludlow in small batches and there is no out-sourcing of production.

The Ludlow Nut Company also supplies nuts, seeds and dried fruits, superfoods and sweet and savoury snacks.

Customers range from small local outlets selling to home bakers to national chains that include Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.

The food industry was a complete change of direction for Helen and Bob Graham when they decided to move to Ludlow from their home in East London.

Helen had worked as an executive in the corporate travel business and Bob had been employed in local Government.

“When we came to Ludlow we had to decide what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives,” said Bob.

Helen who has an MBA had often thought of starting her own business and concentrates on customer service and administration while Bob is the main man when it comes to developing new recipes.

“We were too young to retire and it was not an attractive idea. So we could have tried to carry on what we had always done or try something different."