A £16million investment at Tulip meat processing factories could bring 250 new jobs to Redruth and Bugle.

Tulip employs more than 1,800 people at its operations in Bodmin, Bugle and Redruth and is a leading supplier to major supermarkets of quality pork, bacon and cooked meat products.

The plan will see Tulip and its owners, Danish Crown Group, make significant investments in de-boning facilities at its Bugle site, which will make it the largest de-boning facility in the country, as well as maintaining its existing capability to produce traditional cure and smoked pork products.

As well as the expansion of the Bugle facility, Tulip Ltd will be installing a new state of the art air drying and linear curing facility at its Redruth site that could see business grow by around 40 per cent.

The £16m investment programme is being part funded with a £4.8 million grant from the government’s regional growth fund.

Chris Pomfret, chairman of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “This is one of the biggest inward investments we have seen in recent years, creating hundreds of jobs and safeguarding hundreds more at one of Cornwall’s biggest private sector employers. We have worked hard with our partners behind the scenes to secure this investment and are delighted that Danish Crown has chosen Cornwall to expand. It’s another example of why Cornwall is a great place to do business.”

Welcoming the news Julian German, Cornwall Council’s cabinet member for economy and culture, said: “Today’s announcement from Tulip Ltd is very good news for Cornwall and securing this much needed investment has been a real ‘Team Cornwall’ effort. I would particularly like to pay tribute to staff from the Council’s economic development company who have worked extremely hard behind the scenes to help bring this project to a successful conclusion. When Cornwall pulls together, it is great to see what we can achieve.”

Tulip said that subject to planning consent is hoped to start work on its expansion plans during the autumn of 2014 with completion of the project targeted for the first half of 2015.