biggest employers have announced expansion plans for the New Year, creating up to 50 jobs.

Rank Hovis Macdougall (RHM), which owns Robertson's Ledbury Preserves, off Little Marcle Road, is investing £2m in the site as it looks to start producing Atora suet in May.

"Robertson's Ledbury Preserves is currently recruiting staff for the 30 jobs that been created," said spokeswoman Lara David-Jones.

Planning permission has been granted by Herefordshire Council to install the Atora production line, which is currently based at Greatham, on Teeside.

Manufacturing will take place in premises left empty when RHM subsidiary Just Juice was bought and closed down by Del Monte in March 1999.

The closure led to 185 redundancies and was the town's biggest single round of job losses in recent times.

Expand

The Robertson's Ledbury Preserves operation, which employs 170 people, will continue on the same site.

Booming Dymock Road company Meadow Cheese, which employs 48 workers, is also planning to expand and will take on up to 20 new employees in 2002.

The business, which is securing major EU and American markets for specialised pizza cheeses, has just completed a £1.5m expansion programme, which has doubled capacity.

This year, Meadow Cheese's total sales have increased by 50 per cent.

Joint managing director Robert Peel said: "The year 2001 has been exciting and good for us. Ledbury is a thriving town and we are glad we moved here from Gloucester in September, 1997."

Meadow Cheese is drawing up an investment programme to expand still further and boost sales by 30 per cent in 2002.

Unemployment Services spokesman Wendy Preston-Lemon said: "We welcome the proposed expansions and look forward to working together to find the right people for the right jobs."