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Leicester snack maker Cofresh is investing £20 million in a new factory and warehouse following years of significant growth and expansion.

The business – famous for its Asian snacks such as bombay and balti mix and newer healthier Eat Real range – has bought a new site in Nuneaton, to complement its existing factory in Menzies Road, off Abbey Lane, Leicester.

Management expect to spend around £20 million over the next 18 months allowing the business to split snack production between the two sites and increase annual turnover from less than £30 million recorded in the most recent accounts for 2017 to more than £100 million in the next few years.

The Menzies Road site will continue to specialise in traditional Indian snacks while the new facility, on a seven acre site at the Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate, Nuneaton, will be dedicated to the manufacture of the Eat Real healthier brand, which already makes up a substantial part of the business.

Cofresh is planning to extend the Nuneaton site from 140,000 to 180,000 sq ft, bringing the company’s total production and warehousing ‘footprint’ to almost 400,000 sq ft.

Managing director Priyesh Patel said: “We’re delighted to be taking this hugely significant step in the development of our business.

“Nuneaton’s central location is well-placed for our customer base and offers a great infrastructure and easy access from our primary location in nearby Leicester, while the site itself is perfect for our immediate needs and offers great potential for our ambitious business growth.”

Nuneaton MP Marcus Jones, members of the Cofresh senior management team and financial advisers from HSBC Bank and accountants Haines Watts visited the new factory to mark the acquisition of the site.

Mr Jones said: “I’m delighted to welcome this long-standing family business to Nuneaton.

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“Cofresh and its Eat Real brand are expanding rapidly and I very much welcome this significant investment and creation of new jobs on a site which has been vacant for some time.”

Cofresh Snack Foods was established in 1974 and now claims to be the UK’s number one Indian snack brand.

Eat Real was launched in 2015 in response to growing demand for ‘free from’ and vegan snacks, and includes hummus, lentil and quinoa chips, quinoa puffs and veggie straws.

At its core are the traditional Indian savoury snacks the country knows and loves – famously its Bombay Mix and Balti Mix, but also everything from savoury chick peas to chilli and lemon corn nuts, cassava chips and sesame bars.

It traces its roots back to Nairobi, Kenya, in the 1960s when founder Dinesh Patel started making crisps and popcorn for cinemas, shops, colleges and schools.

In 1974, the family was forced out of its homeland, along with thousands of other Asians who had made their homes in the East African colonies, and found their way over to England.

The Patels spent their savings on a fish and chip shop in Leicester and used the fryers – often in the middle of the night – to make Indian snacks.

They started out with spicy peanuts and green peas, supplying Asian working men’s clubs, shops and pubs, and Dinesh was soon joined by his brothers and later his sons, including current managing director Priyesh – or Pete – Patel.

A little over a decade ago, the business, then based in Thurmaston, had expanded to sell its Bombay mixes and other savoury snacks to ethnic food outlets, newsagents and convenience stores in places like Leicester, Birmingham, London and Manchester.

Ten years on, its potato snacks, nuts, savoury mixes, snack bars and popadom curls can be found in the world food aisles of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons stores across the country.