A BRITISH food export company on the outskirts of York is looking to open its first overseas store after appointing a sales team in the Middle East.

The London Deli Company has continued to expand after opening a 6,000sq ft distribution centre near the A64 at Murton in November last year.

The business, which supplies a range of "fine foods", from preserves and biscuits to crisps and confectionary, was founded four years ago by Craig Benton, from Buttercrambe, near Stamford Bridge, after he spotted a demand for British branded food products overseas.

Rather than exporting an existing range, Mr Benton used his experience in the food industry to independently develop a range of UK products for export.

Selling to airlines and luxury hotels, Mr Benton has secured export deals to the United States, the Middle East, India and Saudi Arabia, and also has a listing with Harrods, London.

Following a recent trip to the Middle East, where he has previously secured a £1.8 million contract with a supermarket chain, Mr Benton has appointed a sales team for the region to further grow the brand, and is now looking at opening a shop in Kuwait.

He said: "The Middle East has always been our stomping ground, and Kuwait was where it all started. It's where I first saw the potential for the brand as anything with London in the name or a Union Jack on it sells really well.

"We pump a lot of products out there, and believe we've not created enough demand to open our own retail facilities. We're looking at the options at the moment, but hope to have things up and running in the next six months."

Alongside expanding its overseas presence, London Deli Company has expanded its range, and it preparing to launch a mail order service online.

Mr Benton said: "We've grown our product ranger by another 31 products. We've expanded our biscuit range into savoury lines, and in our confectionary range we've gone into jellied sweets for a younger audience.

"We're also doing a miniature range, and have been working on a new chocolate bar range, as well as putting together seasonal ranges for Christmas so we don't see a drop in sales over that time.

"As the product range grows we're preparing to launch mail order. I get emails from all over the globe so it makes sense to launch that service.

"In the next month we'll be looking at relaunching our website and the mail order operation will follow.

"Once that's up and running we'll be looking at recruiting for more roles at the warehouse.

"We may also start looking at going into chilled product ranges as we now have the facilities at the warehouse to do that."