Foods group Greencore is shaping up for a major expansion of its pizza manufacturing in the UK, with a £16 million (€20.32 million) investment in a new pizza topping facility in Deeside, North Wales.

The expansion, which is the single biggest investment in the British chilled foods sector, will be situated beside Greencore's existing Canadian Pizza crust bakery in Deeside.

Greencore first got into the British pizza industry when it bought Paramount Foods for £40 million two years ago. Since then Paramount has performed well - to the extent that Greencore is now prepared to invest an additional £16 million on the new pizza topping operation.