FAST growing bakery Crust & Crumb recorded a 40 per cent rise in turnover last year as the Fermanagh firm continued to cut a larger slice of the pizza market.

Now Ireland's largest manufacturer of ambient, chilled and frozen commercial and gluten free dough-based products, the company has been a preferred supplier to Lidl since 2013.

Crust & Crumb operates from two major production facilities in Derrylin along with a third site in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, which it opened in 2019.

Last year it secured a deal worth £24 million to supply 20 new lines of pizza across more than 1,000 Lidl stores in the UK and Ireland.

It has helped the Fermanagh-based food firm continue on its rapid growth. A new set of accounts published by Companies House show Crust & Crumb took in £38.5 million in the year ending June 30 2020, some 40 per cent more than in 2019 and more than double its performance from 2018.

Pre-tax profits last year rose 42.5 per cent to £2.65m.

Staff has also doubled in that two-year period from 140 to 286.

In November last year, Crust & Crumb announced a £5.8m investment to purchase new equipment and create another 88 jobs over the next three years.

Invest NI is set to contribute around £500,000 in financial support for the move.