THE Craigavon bakery company, Evron Foods, which operates from a 75,000 sq ft factory on the Carn Industrial Estate, has announced that it is investing £1 million sterling to increase the sales of its products outside Northern Ireland.

The investment is being supported by an IDB grant of £230,000. The agency's food division executive director, Mr Brian McEntaggart, said that, by investing in a new fully automatic baking and freezing process for part baked and frozen unbaked breads and other products, the firm would reduce production costs, while improving product quality.

"It will enable the company to develop its range of frozen bake off products for in store bakeries," Mr McEntaggart said. "These include value added products such as garlic bread, one of the fastest growing sectors in a generally static market."

Evron's marketing director, Mr Dominic Downey, said the new investment was of vital importance to the company's operations in what was a highly competitive market sector.

"Although we have developed strong positions in niche markets such as ethnic breads and bake off products," he said, we need to invest continually in the development of innovative products which will appeal to customers in Northern Ireland and in our export markets."

Meanwhile, a family bakery in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, has won a contract thought to be worth around £500,000 to supply Tesco stores in the UK. McNamee's Bakery is planning to increase production in order to cope with the new orders.