Radnor Hills was founded by William Watkins on his family’s Heartsease farm, just outside Knighton, in 1990, after his father discovered a new water source, from which he planned to water his cattle.

Now, 35 years later, the Radnor brand has become a giant of the food and drink industry and is recognised globally – being sold in supermarkets, restaurants and even on aeroplanes.

Mr Irranca-Davies visited the firm’s headquarters on Thursday (October 30) to officially unveil its new £5 million Tetra Pak line, which will increase its overall carton capacity by 150 per cent to 150 million packs annually, and which will also lead to more than 20 new jobs being created.

Mr Irranca-Davies unveils a plaque officially opening the Tetra line three. (Image: Matt Jones)

“I look out at the landscape, with the Welsh blacks and sheep grazing on beautiful pasture land, as well as the woodland and water seeping down through these hills, this setting in is in the rural heartland of Wales,” said Mr Irranca-Davies, the cabinet secretary for climate change and rural affairs.

“The expansion of Radnor Hills and opportunities provided for 260 people, to do that here is quite frankly one of our greatest success stories in Wales.

“Radnor Hills is really at the forefront of our food and drink industry, which is going great guns, both domestically and in terms of international exports too.

“Thanks to William and all the generations of the Watkins family who came before, but also the team you’ve assembled here behind you – which includes a robotics firm in Newtown.

“It’s a real team effort and an enormous success, that’s why I’ve come here. It’s not because I like to see my name on plaques – even though I do. It’s such a success story, in an important part of the country for us.

“It’s great to be here today, celebrating success, vision, ambition for food and drink in Wales and building on the success that’s come before.”

William Watkins, the CEO of Radnor Hills, launched the company in 1990. (Image: None)

Mr Watkins described it as “absolutely fantastic” to receive such praise from Mr Irranca-Davies, and to have him visit the site.

“Sometimes, in Mid Wales, we feel unrecognised, with the small population, but we’ve got a lot, a surprising amount of innovative companies, and I’d like to think we’re one of them,” he said.

“So, getting some recognition for that by getting the deputy first minister here is great.”

The new line means at least 20 new jobs will be created by Radnor Hills across its Knighton and Presteigne sites, with an additional 12 people already employed at its Penycae site in the south of Powys.

It means that the number of employees will soon push beyond 270 – and William sees no reason why that number won’t rise above 300 in the future.

“The 20 new jobs will be coming in the future, as we develop that business, and we have absolutely no doubt that that line will be completely full in another few years and we’ll be thinking about hopefully another one,” he added.

“I think we will top 300 in a few years.”

Radnor Hills has become a globally-recognised business.

William touched on a “great relationship” Radnor Hills enjoys with Newtown-based RM Group, which provides automated packaging systems.

He added: “I found out about them at an international trade show on the continent. I had no idea about them, I just saw this incredible machinery working, and when I spoke to the rep, who said they were based in Newtown, I had to do a double take.

“We have to make sure we’re using the most automated and best techniques. Whenever we do this, we also grow.

“Automation for us doesn’t mean less employees. It means doing things more efficiently, growing our marketplace.

“Because we’re doing that, we may have to repurpose what people’s jobs are, move them from here to there, but we tend to still go up in workforce.

“It’s important we do things efficiently and if we do that we’ll get more market share and we’ll need more people because of that.”