Firm wins carrier kitchens deal

The project to build the new aircraft carriers is costing £4bn

A marine catering company in Hampshire has won a multi-million contract to build kitchens on the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers.

Kempsafe, based in Bitterne Manor, will work on the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales in a £3.4m deal.

The contract is expected to take the firm just over four years to complete, with the creation of five jobs.

The carriers are due to be partly built in Portsmouth and should be operating within six to eight years.

Kempsafe already has contracts to build the galleys for the navy's Astute class submarines and for the mess quarters of the Type-45 destroyers.

The new aircraft carriers will be the largest vessels ever built for the navy and will be nearly three times the size of the current Invincible-class carriers.

The whole project is costing £4bn and is due to begin in the spring, safeguarding 10,000 UK jobs.