A butchery firm is hitting the expansion trail once again.

Meatmaster, in Osney Mead, Oxford has taken on a third unit in a £750,000 investment that will create five new jobs.

Managing director Matthew Alden said: “It is an investment in staff, customers, the local economy and the future of the company.”

Meatmaster was started in 2005 as a way of restoring a retail arm for historic Oxford butchers RR Alden & Son, which can trace its roots back to 1793.

Mr Alden, the sixth generation of the family firm, has overseen its steady expansion which has seen it grow from less than 20 workers to 60 today.

He said: “It has been steady progress. We have grown 10 per cent year on year but there is a lot more we want to do.”

Aldens recently won back a major contract with 18 colleges at Cambridge University and has also traditionally supplied Oxford University colleges as well as several five star hotels in London which make up 15 per cent of the business.

The business turned over £8.2m last year when it also started trading again at its spiritual home in Oxford’s Covered Market and Mr Alden is looking to boost that to £11m in the next three years.

“It is definitely going to be an exciting 2014,” he added.