Ambrosia creamery's £19m production expansion

Ambrosia Custard pots on a production line in Lifton, Devon

The Devon-based makers of Ambrosia Custard are investing £19m in new equipment to expand their productivity.

The investment will support more than 320 jobs at Premier Foods' Lifton site on the Devon and Cornwall border.

The company says the cash injection is a result of increased demand for its Ambrosia porridge pots and will enable the firm to make 10 million more pots a year.

The rice pudding and custard production lines are being modernised to free up capacity for porridge, and there will also be a new custard-making plant.

"It's really the growth of porridge," said factory general manager Rachel Matheson.

"We're now in the breakfast aisle, and this brand is growing, and we need to really increase capacity, so the investment has been driven by porridge growth."

The work is expected to be completed by next summer.

Rachel Matheson, factory general manager, said the brand had grown

Many of the people who work at the site also live in Lifton.

Operations manager Ben Palmer followed in his father's footsteps when he joined the firm and now works at the factory alongside his brother, brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

"It's not just a job for me because my family have been here and I live in Lifton," said Mr Palmer.

"It's more of a lifestyle for me. I'm really passionate about improving our lines and improving our production, but also because of the links of family here, I really want it to do well personally as well."

Ben Palmer, operations manager, followed his father into working at the firm

Ambrosia was founded in 1917 when it used local milk to make dried milk powder for the troops in World War One.

It currently produces 65 million kilograms of custard and rice pudding each year, using more than 50 million litres of milk from south west farms.