FROZEN food specialist Dalepak has secured the future of more than 300 staff by investing £8.75m in equipment.

The company has installed more than a mile of sub-zero conveyor belts, dubbed "The Frozen Mile", at its base in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, to keep itself at the forefront of the frozen food industry.

The investment has seen a phased replacement of old cooler units with four new spiral freezers.

As well as these installations extensive factory refurbishment has been carried out to create an up-to-date food preparation facility.

Early results have proved encouraging, according to managing director Jon Eagle.

He said: "This investment has already had a huge effect on our productivity and efficiency - from increasing the number of grills and burgers that we can produce each day, to minimising daily waste and even saving energy in the process.

"We have been at the forefront of frozen food innovation for many years and with the new facilities that we now have at our Leeming Bar factory, we believe that we can continue to meet the demands of our existing customers and develop products to bring new purchasers to the sectors."

The final stage of the investment programme was the introduction of Meurer automatic shrinkwrappers to reduce waste and cut handling time.

Dalepak is preparing to launch new ranges of products in both its meat and meat-free ranges in early spring.