DAIRY group Robert Wiseman is planning to continue its growth with the help of a £5m distribution depot in County Durham.

The 50,000sq ft operation, under construction in Chester-le-Street, will create more delivery options for the company.

The development will complement a £5.5m depot, which was opened in Bristol last year.

Wiseman posted a 38 per cent rise in pre-tax profits which rose to £22.8m in the year to March 29.

Alan Wiseman, chairman, said recent contracts extending its relationship with supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury and Safeway would help maintain the upward momentum.

A deal to supply more Safeway stores in Scotland came into effect in January while April saw extra deliveries to Tesco and Sainsbury branches in England and Wales.

The extra contracts are worth 100 million litres a year - about ten per cent of its present sales volumes.

Milk volumes during the year to March 29 broke through the group's target of one billion litres a year - up almost 12 per cent to 1.03 billion litres - but turnover rose a more modest five per cent to £391m.

The expansion drive - led by a production plant at Droitwich Spa, near Worcester, opened two years ago - has extended the Glasgow firm's reach with more than 63 per cent of total sales by volume now generated in England and Wales.