An award-winning St Ives company has moved into larger premises following a period of significant growth.

British Essentials, which distributes British food to expats around the world, has opened the doors to a new unit in Burrel Road, just three years after the business was launched.

Founder Merik Chadda started the firm in 2014 in the spare room of his parent’s home and has grown the business into one of the country’s leading suppliers of British-branded products to British nationals living abroad.

“We need lots more space for our ever-growing range of products and also to accommodate our growing staff numbers. Our goal is to be the number one food exporter in the UK and I believe we are firmly on track to achieve this,” Mr Chadda said.

“Our new unit will allow us to meet the increasing demand from expats for the British products they know and trust, and continue to deliver the high standards of customer service for which we are known.

“Our growth in the last year has been such that we just completely outgrew our previous unit in St Ives.

“We have now gone from premises of less than 1,000 sq ft to a unit measuring almost 4,000 sq ft, which demonstrates the scale of our growth.”

As a part of its phenomenal growth, the business caught the attention of the Japanese rugby team and were called upon to supply the squad with its entire supply of water and energy drinks when it visited the UK in 2015.

The expansion was also spotted by the judges of this year’s SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards as the business won the Enterprising Business of the Year gong, along with the Young Business Person of the Year which was awarded to Mr Chadda.

The move, which took place last month, was brokered by St Neots-based Barford+Co.

Howard Westgate, associate director of Barford+Co, said: “British Essentials is a truly inspiring business, with Merik Chadda identifying an opportunity in the food export market and applying his considerable entrepreneurial skills to turn his idea into a growing and successful business.

“It was a pleasure to be able to support Merik identifying suitable premises to support the next stage of the company’s growth and to be able to work quickly to ensure a smooth transaction.”