Silvery Tweed Cereals is to build a new 12,000sq ft facility at its Berwick-upon-Tweed site.

The business has secured planning permission for a storage and processing facility that will enable the firm to segregate its sesame ingredients and finished products containing sesame, as well as increase its overall storage capacity.

The development includes a dedicated sesame loading and unloading area for vehicles, pedestrian access and changing facilities.

Silvery Tweed is making a £600,000 investment that could rise to £1.1m with the purchase of additional processing equipment.

The company currently employs more than 80 people, cleaning and processing grain from growers based mostly in the Borders for the UK breakfast cereal and bakery markets.

“I am delighted we have been granted planning permission to build these new facilities which will allow us to offer a wider range of high-quality products to new and existing customers,” said managing director Robert Gladstone.

“This is a significant investment and we have taken every step possible to ensure that the development will not impact local wildlife and will benefit the area by putting to use land that has lain empty for some time.”

Building work is scheduled to begin at the end of March this year and run for around 16 weeks.

“We are hoping to have the new facility fully operational by the end of September,” Gladstone added.