Deeside gets pizza the action

The unlikely area of Deeside, North Wales is set to become one of the pizza making centres of Europe following a deal by a leading producer to set up a major new factory there.

The move, by Salford-based Paramount Foods, will initially bring 35 new jobs to a site near Chester, followed by a further 50 over the next two years.

Paramount has agreed a 16-year lease on a mothballed Heinz sauce manufacturing plant.

The company said it would make 50 million pizza crusts a year at Deeside, adding to the 75 million crusts produced each year at its existing Salford factory.

The head office of Paramount will relocate to the new base from Salford, but it is not thought this will have any job implications.

Ray Davies, operations director, said: "This will be a major state of the art plant. We see our business growing considerably and it could mean a vast amount of new jobs in the future.

"We will start with around 100 staff in the first couple of years but there will be much more in terms of which way we develop the site further.

However, he said the new plant would not take over from Salford as the major centre for pizza production.

Barry O'Connell, chairman of Paramount Foods said: "This is a terrific opportunity for Paramount Foods to become the premier producer of pizza crusts in Europe.

"Our investment in Deeside will be the largest capital investment ever made by the company and underlines the confidence of the board in the future of the business."

Paramount refused to comment on the cost of the deal, but said it plans to to invest "significant capital sums" over the next two to three years.

The company said it was granted incentives from the Welsh Office to locate in Deeside.

"Deeside has the potential to make products for the whole range of the pizza market. It has big, big flexibility."