The latest growth comes less than a year after the business was launched and four months after it got the go- ahead to start supplying supermarkets, following investment by regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

Now, the Carlton Industrial Estate company is doubling production and unveiling a new brand of sweet, toffee, salt and premium popcorn, called Crazy Maize.

Cornscape is investing £150,000 in boosting popcorn production to 1,500 kilos a day, with the help of the Royal Bank of Scotland's Commercial Banking team, RBS IF and Lombard.

The cash will also improve manufacturing efficiency and enable the firm to bid for larger contracts.

Founder and managing director Steve Seddon says: "We are very excited by this new product and the launch. It is the culmination of months of hard work and extensive research and we have already received a positive response from the market place.

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"The increase in machinery is also a great boost for the company and will enable us to meet our expansion plans. Our aim is to become the market leader and as the business grows it's essential to have the right funds in place to support our eplans."

Mr Seddon has 20 years' experience in the popcorn industry. He owned a popcorn company called Kernels, which was acquired in 2002by Cadbury's Butterkist brand, which he went on to manage.

He decided to create Cornscape after noticing a gap in the market for 'own label' popcorn at supermarkets, cinemas and high street video rental outlets.

Customers include Sainsbury's, Blockbusters and City Screen, the largest UK independent cinema group.

Funding for Cornscape's latest expansion was put together by Jonathan Plaxton from Lombard, Matthew Brown from RBS IF and Neil Smith from the bank's Commercial Banking Team in Doncaster.

Jonathan Plaxton said: "We have been very impressed with Steve and his passion for popcorn. The new product is testament to this and will add to an already very successful business. We are very happy to support them."

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