SAVOURY toothed pub regulars across the North have helped set a Bradford- based snacks supplier on the road to further growth.

They have consumed the bulk of the nearly 750,000 individual packets of pork scratchings alone supplied by Low Moor-based Mr Scratchings which in total supplies around 600 products lines to pubs and other customers such as company canteens and retailers, including the Keelham Farm shops at Denholme and Skipton.

As well as distributing snack foods, the business also sells its own brand of pork snacks including scratchings, crunch and crackling, along with cleaning materials.

Mr Snacks, which has been run by its current owners since 2002, has invested around £80,000 in expanding its Chapel Road premises to provide more office space and added three new vans, taking its delivery fleet to seven.

The move has created two full-time jobs at the 11-strong company which expects to have a turnover of £1.8 million this year.

Mr Snacks, headed by managing director Tim Banks and co-owner Rick Clayton,

also supplies snacks such as crisps, nuts and chocolate to the hospitality industry across the north ranging from Grimsby to Crewe and Kendal to Newcastle.

The company added the new vans with funding from Yorkshire Bank both to replace older vehicles and increase delivery capacity.

The deal was arranged by Alan Richardson, relationship manager at Yorkshire Bank’s Bradford business and private banking centre.

Tim Banks, Mr Scratchings managing director, said: "The business is going through a period of growth and buying the new vans has helped us ensure that we can continue to expand.

” Unlike many of our competitors, we deliver directly and regularly to customers across the North and this has helped us build up a good client base . Also, we have upgraded our invoicing systems from paper to digital which has made us more efficient and contributed to growth which we expect will continue in 2016."

Andy Davidson, head of business and private banking at Yorkshire Bank’s Bradford centre, said: “Yorkshire Bank is proud to support businesses targeting growth. Mr Scratchings is a popular and well-known supplier to the northern hospitality sector and we look forward to continuing to work with Tim and his team as they grow further.”

Pork scratchings originated in the Midlands where pigs were fattened up for slaughter on St Steven's Day (December 26) and strips of skin and fat deep fried and stored in the larder for consumption throughout the year. Pork scratchings arrived in Yorkshire in the mid 19th Century when workers from Derbyshire arrived to work in local mills .